Blinded By Sight

Hello from Atlanta!
I'm here until Wednesday visiting my cousins and today I went to visit this new exhibit that just opened on August 31st called "Dialog in the Dark". The premise of the exhibit is to demonstrate how much people rely on sight and how when sight is taken away, your other senses are maximized. Each person on the tour is fit with their own cane, yes, as in canes that most blind people use to navigate the world every day.
In the beginning, there is an audio clip that describes how little attention is paid to the world using 4 of the 5 senses. These 4 senses work in the world regardless of whether or not it is light out or not. Chocolate will taste like chocolate even in the dark, and a rose will smell like a rose in the dark. But sight... sight is the only sense that loses it's power when the lights go out. And when you think about, ever since man discovered fire he has been working to obliterate darkness and all the presumed dangers that go with it.
As the audio clip ends, the lights begin to dim and eventually the room is a pit of darkness and I couldn't even see my own hand in front of my face. Our tour guide walks in and guides us into the next room which is a forest. I feel a breeze, I hear the birds, and I cross a bridge I felt the water from a waterfall. The entire tour lasts us an hour and through each room we walked through, I learned how to "see" things with my hands, ears, and nose. The one that seemed most interesting was when we went through a supermarket because most foods I recognized by seeing them, took me nearly twice as long to recognize by feeling (this was the second room I think during the tour). The other was when we had to simulate walking across the street, which btw, is A LOT harder than it seems doing without sight.
Before the end of the tour was "Dialog in the Dark" where we sat in the dark, in a cafe and asked questions. Our tour guide, Darren, was actually blind. He was born 3 months premature and lost most of his eye sight from too much exposure to oxygen when he was placed in a incubator following his birth. Up until the age of 7, he could still read most things if they were in large print. But he had about 14 eye surgeries between the ages of 7 and 8, pretty much eliminating what little eyesight he had left.
The most interesting point Darren made, I thought, about being blind was that blindness itself is not the disability, but rather the fear of the unknown. And when you think about it, that's exactly what it's about. Most people who are blind can still live perfectly normal lives, but to those of us who can see, it's the thought that we don't know what's going on around us that's scary. It was an eye-opening (no pun intended) experience for me and if anyone visits Atlanta in the near future, please look into visiting this exhibit.

http://www.dialogue-in-the-dark.com/

I need a stress ball

I've been stressed out. I envy those who have free time during the week.

The stress from the end of junior year has carried on to the beginning of this year. Usually the first couple months are chill...but SURPRISE SURPRISE! Senior year just makes me want to curl up in a ball sometimes. There's something weighing me down right now. And I'm a petite person, so I don't know how much more I can take.

Sometimes, I don't like to vent publicly, because I don't really like it when I complain...I put myself in this situation anyways, so I shouldn't even be complaining....but now I can't even help but let it all out.

It's academics, as well as my social life...I won't go into detail, but geez people need to grow up.
Does anyone else feel NOT excited for Homecoming? I could really care less at this point.

Honestly, all I really want to do is finish my college applications and have all that stress go away.

SAT Stress

The SAT's are coming up really soon, but it seems like the advertising is going poorly. I think there is a lot of confusion as to when the SAT's are going to be held, aside from the PSAT's and the ACT's. This is very frusterating for those planning to take the upcoming SAT test like me and my friends. Senior's this year have until December to get their final scores in, but Juniors are just beginning the process. From everything that I've heard, the SAT's are very difficult, long and that the workshops are very helpful. Depending on whick college your applying to, depends on how many tests you need to take. If your applying to a UC college, I believe you have to take either the SAT's or ACT's and 2 SAT subject tests. Sounds like a lot of work... Im very stressed to take the tests especially beacuse I feel so unprepared. Maybe by taking a few prep classes will ease that stress.

Rocklin High School Football

The football season has started. It is definitely my favorite time of the year. The first game against Oakridge went well we came out on top with a victory. However, the game up at Nevada Union didn't exactly go as planned. The Thunder fought right until the end, but there were a few rough patches of the game. Starting quarterback, Tiger Sorenson, hurt his collarbone and now is out for 3-4 weeks. The second string quarterback, Garth Keffer, however, just couldn't handle the pressure to keep the Thunder in the lead. The Varsity coaching staff decided they needed a new fresh face to keep the Thunder going. They pulled up sophomore, Jimmy Laughrea, the JV quarterback, to help the Thunder in their further season victories. He's young, but he's well prepared. He transferred to Rocklin this year from rival school Granite Bay High. He's really athletic and the coaches have confidence in him that he will succeed. The older boys are happy to have him on the team. He will start his Varsity season tonight at the game at Las Lomas High School. Hopefully, it will go well and we will come home with a victory.

A Change of Heart

Let me start off by saying that I've never been a big fan of poetry. It's not that I hated it or anything, but I've just never been compelled to read poetry on my own accord and not for some school assignment. Yet, lately, within the past few months, I find myself being more and more attracted to poetry and not just reading it, but writing it as well.
When I was younger, the reason I was turned off by poetry was the lack of structure. With my short stories I knew the drill: characters, basic plot. But with poetry there didn't seem to be any hard and fast rule and what to write or how to write it. And that annoyed me. I didn't think I was capable of writing a "good poem". That's beginning to change.
In AP English, we've recently started our poetry unit. I groaned and rolled my eyes, but after the exercises on the first day I realized something big.
Our first poem was taking the phrases "I need..." and "I've had enough..." repetitively and filling in the sentences as we so desired. I tried it out and I realized how insightful it was to take 2 simple phrases but manifest what exactly it was I was feeling.
Last night I decided to try writing that poem again as a way to release all the stress and tension I was taking. Surprise! It helped a lot. It was something so incredibly simple, yet it's impact on my emotional sanity. I'm slowly learning (Ms. Padilla would be proud) the magic behind poetry, the great appeal and draw that it's had for so many people.
I found a small book of Jack Kerouac haikus a while back. I'll leave it with you as it has now become one my favorite poems. I've never forgotten it, simply because of how random it is. It was one my first eye opening realizations that poetry can truly be about anything.

"Bee, why are you
staring at me?
I am not a flower"
-Jack Kerouac

Full Shopping Carts

Depression in America. What is the cause for the apparent recent increases? And are they really all that recent?
it is my belief that the depression comes form an "empty feeling" many Americans are experiencing. In "The Feminine Mystique" Betty Friedan describes this feeling of emptiness as a common ailment in the housewives of the 50's. The 1950's was a time of advertisement!!! NEW NEW NEW! Shop Till You Drop! Housewives bought more and more knickknacks for the home- keeping themselves busy. Friedan gives ridiculous statistics showing how truly unfulfilled the average housewife was. There are countless quotes, articles, diary entries as well as actual numbers. (this is in no way against housewives, I'm just getting to my point). Today, although we may not realize it, we are still affected by the 50's. American men and women are constantly pressured to buy. Shopping is still a women stereotype (and many commercials for the cooking and cleaning are still aimed towards them). And the 50's also left behind the feeling of emptiness. I watched a more current Documentary on America (several had this point in fact) and they all describe this 'mysterious depression". It is my opinion that we need to look to the past to find the answers of today. So, looking at the 50's, we can see that perhaps this ailment is caused by a lack of fulfillment in daily lives. Are we doing anything individually that is important to our community? The world? No, most people really are not (in my opinion). And to fill that emptiness of something meaningful, we do what is now becoming an American tradition. WE SHOP. We buy all the right outfits, home appliances, more crap that we don't need. More more and more. Because boy have they "GOT A BARGAIN FOR YOU" and because you "Need this new pair of shoes". Maybe pulling the latest fashion over your head isn't going to make this feeling go away.
Maybe what each of us needs is a cause. Something meaningful. So that at the end of the day we aren't restless, we feel complete.

See You at the Pole

This morning was See You at the Pole. See You at the Pole is a day, specifically morning, where students across the nation go onto their campus before school and pray for the nation at their flag pole.The event is completely student led although several adults do typically attend to pray with the students.
Last week See You at the Pole announcements were put in our morning anouncements and posters were hung around the school. Students of One, the Christian club, are also wearing braceltets as a way to remind themselves and others of the event. Wearing something ie clothing, pins, stickers, and bracelets about something that you personally believe in and/or agree with always starts good conversations.
Personally I love this opportunity for the students of our nation to come together in prayer. I believe that this event should not only be marked as religious, but also as a demonstration of the many freedoms we have in our nation.