Sunday, April 26, 2009

Heat Wave

Today was an absolute perfect day to lye around the house and do nothing at all. I woke up at about 10 AM, took a cool shower, and immediately went outside on my deck to avoid wasting a second of the gorgeous weather.

I felt very in tune with my environment today. My neighbor plucking a very peaceful tune on his mandolin was the perfect background noise to read a good book in. While I read in the shade, I enjoyed a glass of iced green tea while my puppy-panting feverishly at the intense heat-sat on my lap. I felt very guilty that I hadn't gone to church when I heard the bells chime, but it almost seemed like more of a sin to sit in a stuffy building on such a glorious day.

I did get some things accomplished: I went to the coin drop for the national honor society and then went to work. (I love to see everything in bloom)

I still think the highlight of my day was the time I set aside to be lazy and lounge about.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Bursting in Bloom, All the Flowers Assume...

the nice weather is finally back! Stress has been getting the best of me lately, so perhaps tomorrow I'll go out in the near 90 degree weather and try to relax and renew.

Not many interesting things happened this week. At my job (which at this point I absolutely can't stand) I burnt some cinnamon rolls because I forgot to take them out of the oven. What a surprise? I'm always screwing things up. So, I got yelled at again by the new bitch manager, Melanie. If I can find another job, I'll be saying sayonara to panera. Before I leave, I'll tell Melanie where she can put that French Baguette.

There was a crow with a broken wing walking around our yard. We couldn't let scrappy outside because we were worried that she would try to attack the crow but the crow would probably attack her. All of his crow friends were circling around him, probably calling "Hey! What are you doing down there?? Come on!" (in bird language). We have a net in the garage and my mom told me to go get the net and get rid of it. I don't know what she expected me to do with a net, but I was certainly not prepared to try and catch a crow in one. So, when my dad got home he chased it out of the yard with a rake like farmer joe. I feel kind of bad for that crow, but they're kind of evilish looking birds.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Cocoa Chanel

So, I'm done having arguments over stupid shit. There's no point in trying to prove a point if it's going to make your friends hate you.

Instead I'm going to introduce you to the coolest cat in town. Cocoa Chanel!


She's just so beautiful. I don't know what I would do without her.

Anyway, here's the story of how she came to be a part of my family. At the beginning of 10th grade, we saw Cocoa and her partner in crime, Leo, lounging around in our driveway under my mom's car. It looked like they were kind of thin so my sister and I gave them slices of baloney which they seemed to enjoy very much (although Leo was quite voracious and gobbled up almost all of it before Cocoa could get even a little morsel). It was starting to get cold so we begged our mom to let us take them inside. Her response was "you know how much Gerald hates cats!". But she's a pushover and she let us take Cocoa inside. Then she called up my aunt Nancy who lives down the road and told them about the other cat. My cousin Alea rushed over to pick him up and he is now happily living with them, eating everything in sight.

My father was most upset at first that we got a cat without his consent (which he would have never given). But now he admits that he has never seen a more mild mannered cat. I even catch him on the floor with her sometimes, rubbing her belly.

But still, Cocoa and I are the closest, I think. I don't know if it's just because I feed her, or if it's because I'm the one that gives her the most attention, but every night when I go to sleep she's always stretched out on my bed waiting for snuggles. I wish I could take her to Vassar with me, but it's not allowed. I might have to sneak her in. I'm sure she'll adapt to college life very well.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Don't Be Foolish

People get offended much too easily. I say this because some people are getting unnecessarily angry at other people because they're apparently "playing the race card". Where to begin...

First of all, if you didn't get into your top choice college, you have my utmost sympathy. You would think that your friends would be understanding of how hurt you must be after what you've been working so hard for. Obviously, after trying so hard to accomplish a goal and then failing, the first thing we do is tear ourselves to pieces and say how much we suck at life. But after a while, you'll want to try and make yourself feel better by looking at other factors that could have been involved in your rejection. Of course, as soon as you say that minorities have an advantage over white students, you're a racist.

A minority student has to work every bit as hard as a white student to get into a decent college. There's no doubt about that. A student who is lazy, and unintelligent is not going to get into Harvard just because he/she is Spanish. However, some schools (not ALL schools, but SOME) do favor minority students. These schools are mostly the schools that have been criticized in the past for only accepting rich white students that went to some fancy preparatory school and whose parents made a financial contribution to the school (examples: the ivy league schools and other prestigious universities). For example, the well known Stanford University has only 48% white students. Now, if 70% of the people in the United States are White, then that means that if race was not a factor in Stanford's admission process, approximately 70% of their student body would be white. Since about 15% of the people in this country are black, then approximately 15% of their student body should be black, correct? However, that is not the case.

Even the less prestigious schools want to make sure that they have a certain amount of diversity on their campus. It shows that the college is very accepting and represents students that come from every walk of life. I'm excited to be going to a college where I can meet all different kinds of people from all over the world, but I still think that college admission should be based on intelligence and motivation alone and not on things you have no control over.

So, if I am a better student than you (and you just happen to be a minority), and we both applied to the same school, I'm sure that I would get in and you would not. However, if you and I are equally qualified (and you just happen to be a minority), I wouldn't be surprised if you were chosen over me. Be that as it may, if you get into a good college, you had to work your ass off and I would never say the only reason you got in was because you were ethnically diverse.

I'm sorry that some people get upset way too easily but I don't think that gives them an excuse to go around implying things about others. I'm not racist at all, and it really offends me that people would insinuate something like that.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Money Matters

Thankfully I'm done sulking over Cornell and Columbia. I mean, schools that start with Cs are so overrated anyway. It's sort of like Abercrombie and Fitch: sure, the clothes are nice, but people only buy them for the name.

I could not be more ecstatic to be going to Vassar College. A beautiful campus, a variety of majors to choose from, only 40 minutes from home, what's not to like? Not to mention that it is one of the most accredited colleges in the US, so I'm covered in the prestige department.

Oh, and did I mention that Vassar is giving me a 43,000 dollar scholarship? How could I possibly refuse such an offer? All the other schools that I applied to (which, mind you, are not as good as Vassar) hardly gave me anything. Money talks, and I like what I'm hearing.

I apologize if the comment about "being born black helping me get into college" offended anyone. I didn't mean it the way it sounded. But I'm sure we all know that Ivy league schools favor minority students over the classic white male such as myself.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

But There Are Dreams That Cannot Be

I am most upset to say that I was denied to both Cornell and Columbia. The emotional blow of looking online to see if I made it in and then seeing that I had been rejected to both was almost physically painful. I couldn't help but think if there was something I could have done differently. I mean, my sat score was excellent, my gpa was high, my class rank is great, I have numerous extracurriculars, I wrote a knock-em-dead essay (at least I thought), I met every single requirement that they had. Oh well, I guess you can't have everything.

Anyway, I didn't go to school today. I needed a day to get this out of my system. I don't think I could bare to have to go to school and act happy for everyone else when I'm burning inside.