Blog #10

             The greatest advice anyone has ever given me has to be "Never worry about what people think of you, it shouldn't matter. All that should matter is your priorities and responsibilities and how your trying to be successful and what you are going to do to be successful." This advice came from my mother, she ALWAYS knows what to tell me and when  to tell me it. She knows I struggle with worrying about what others think of me because I always feel like the attention of everyone is always being placed on me. The advice she has given me has affected my life dramatically. Now being at the age I am, which is 19 I no longer worry about what people have to say. Are they going to make my life successful ? Are they going to provide for me and pay my bills? The answer to that is NO ! I have to worry about my own priorities in order to be successful, I have to go that extra mile in order to accomplish the things I want to accomplish. In the long run , I believe anyone can benefit from this advice, in order to be great we have to let go of what people think of us and focus on what's most important to us which to me is my future. We can't dwell on who said this and who said that, we have to be the bigger person and say " Who cares what they think". This advice has helped me step out of my comfort zone, I no longer worry and I no longer care as long as my responsibilities are getting done and I know I'm being successful in life. With all this being said I am extremely happy with my life and I'm so blessed to have a mother who is willing to give me the advice she does and wants to see me accomplish my dreams and goals and be successful.

Blog #9

     
                           I believe the drinking age should be lowered to the age 18. Once we turn 18 everyone says we're "legal" so why not let drinking be legal at the age 18. As I read David J. Hanson's titled " Should the Legal Drinking Age Be Lowered?" he went into saying he believes we are not emotionally mature to drink and we wouldn't know how to handle drinking. He considers once we get to a certain age, we should be issued a license that we earned after passing a test that would lets us be able to drink. As I read further down in his article he begins to talk about one argument, which is "Does alcohol damage young brains?". He clarifies drinking at a young age does not damage young brain , I believe it doesn't either. Another argument he stated was "Are those that begin drinking at an early age are more likely to experience drinking problems later on in life?". I agree with this , I truly believe they will have some kind of drinking problem later on in life because it all depends on their emotions and the pain the person has gone through. I agree with Hanson's opinion because I feel if we did have a license that let us drink at a young age more people would be willing to be more careful and not go against the law. I read one more article by William De Jong , titled " Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered to 18?". He first introduced what his colleagues had though which was "I can't believe we're even talking about this". Which is understandable to think because most people believe we're not mature enough to even drive better yet drink. Later on De Jong begins to explain that college presidents believe that the legal drinking age begin at 21 doesn't work. If we lower the drinking age will it result in fewer alcohol related problems? If you asked me I would say NO! If the younger generation were to get drunk they would drink and drive somewhere to try to do something what would happen?  the outcome wouldn't be good. Both articles are good but, I agree with David J. Hanson's article more than I do with William De Jong's article as Hanson is actually giving us a chance.

Blog #8

         I chose Amanda Petrusich's article "Mariah Carey's Rather Perfect Farewell To 2016" because  I like how Mariah Carey is as a person , the way she dresses and the way she does her make-up. By reading this article I found out that  Amanda Petrusich's main point was  to show how the leading events Carey went through ended up not going the way they were supposed to. But at the end, it really didn't matter because she didn't care. In fact Carey said,  "Shit happens" ; all she wanted to do was say her farewell! Petrusich defended her point in this article when she talks about Mariah Carey's launch into her song "Emotions",  an "airy disco track about falling in love", which was released more than twenty years ago in 1991.Petrusich begins to bring up how Carey had to sing in "whistle register" the highest range a human can originally produce, which also leads to define when Mariah couldn't go on with her performance due to technical glitches. Other people believe she could have went on because, there were so many monitors amplifying her music , how could she forget ?.I really like how Mariah Carey says "Shit Happens" because everything isn't going to be perfect , even if you're famous things happen , nothings ever perfect. I've learned so much new vocabulary while reading this article like when Petrusich says "Artists lip-synching during high-stakes live appearance is so ordinary now as to be tedious to discuss" or when she says in the first paragraph "A pleasantly inane variety program broadcast". Amanda Petrusich did an amazing job by stating her point and defending it , Mariah  Rather Perfect Farewell To 2016 was a good read and something I really enjoyed reading. Here is a link to view Amanda Petrusich's article ,http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/mariah-careys-rather-perfect-farewell-to-2016.

A voice I wish too increase

                    One voice I wish I could increase in my life , is my Tia Luisa because she was always so happy and joyful , always made us feel at home and never stopped worrying about us. My Tia Luisa is much like my grandma , ever since I was little I always remember going over to my Tia's house listening to her and my grandma talk about life and drink their coffee. My aunt died a month before my 10 birthday , and every time March 19 comes around I feel as if she's always trying to talk to me , or indicate to me that she's always with me.
               Luisa ALWAYS watched over me and my brother either if it was us being sick or if we needed a babysitter. She didn't speak much English  so we had to learn Spanish but if she did speak English  it would be simple words and not complete sentences. She would always ask if I was hungry and I remember ALWAYS eating chicken noodle soup with crackers along with a coke. It never failed that , that would be my meal every time I would go over there. Her voice was so soft and sweet , I would say like an angels voice. Luisa and my grandma have really influenced me so much and also taught me a lot as a little girl. Every time around Christmas we ALWAYS  had a tradition of making tamales , all my Tia's including my Tia Luisa and my grandma , my mom and cousins would gather at my Tia Luisa's house to make tamales. Everybody had aprons on , listening to music and just laughing at all the conversations that were going on.
               My Tia Luisa's voice is something Ill always cherish , just like ill always cherish my grandmas. They were so much alike in so many ways and its always good to have them in my hearts .They're voices encourage me to do better and become a better person and cherish life.

Blog #6

                         
               Both these articles "Before I Go" and "My Marriage Didn't End When I Be came a Widow" are telling us we should live life to the next level, enjoy our lives , live to the fullest no matter what the circumstances are. We should be appreciative of what's in our lives now because one day it may not be there. By reading these articles I've come familiar with why they say live life to the fullest , these quotes helped my understanding. In "Before I Go " it says "The most obvious might be an impulse to frantic activity: to "live life to then fullest", to travel, to dine, to achieve a host of neglected ambitions ". I've also been informed in "My Marriage Didn't End When I Became a Widow" We found new depths of trust and confidence I each other - as husband and now patient, wife and now caregiver and, soon, as new parents to a baby girl".
            I can see that in "Before I Go" Paul Kalanithi was a very heart filled man with a lot of ambitions for his life as he had found out he was diagnosed with lung cancer and was able to actually be at home with his new born baby. Reading this article was really sad , seeing a hard working man go so far in his career to then be told he was facing death is something no one ever wants to see. Paul made it seem so easy , as he would spend as much time with his loved ones , not worrying about death , which opens my eyes to see that their might not always be a bright side but you can always make one like Paul Kalanithi did. In "My Marriage Didn't End When I Became a Widow " I can see how Lucy Kalanithi has dealt with her husbands death and how she's been able to deal with it. Lucy had loved Paul ever since they met in 2003 as first-year medical students. She helped Paul as much as she could , making sure him and their daughter were well taken care of. "I held Paul during his last hours, lying with him in his hospital bed, comforting and signing softly to him until he died". This quote really brings this article in my eyes together , it shows truly how much love Lucy had for Paul. Lucy has showed me its not always easy to see someone go but cherishing every moment will truly help out a lot and not be as hard on us.
        What gives Kalanithi such a strong voice worth returning to and giving back to others  is that she is  being able to see he had written an article about himself and she was able to write her thoughts back along to correspond with his. Reading both Paul and Lucy's articles really encourages me to share this article to anyone who has lost a loved one , so they too can see how Lucy overcame her husbands death.

Words of Wisdom

             

            Ever since I was a little my mom always had encouraging words or as I would say "words of wisdom" to tell me EVERY morning o the way to school , at home , or just if she thought i needed to hear them.At the age of 12 or 13 my parents got a divorce, which isn't easy for an child to go through.It really didn't bother me at the time , when I reached high school it finally sunk i that my parents were really not together.I wouldn't really show I was sad, matter of fact, I showed no emotion at all.But you know how moms get when they know something is up with their child , they get to asking questions, doing every little thing to see whats wrong with us.After the 1000 questions I finally told her my reasoning for for being so "weird" as she would say.If you know me then you know i'm a BIG CRYBABY solo of course I started to cry not that it was weird to cry, a family that's been broken up is really painful.
          So here's where the words of wisdom come into play , by this time i'm in full tears almost literally crying a river.As my mom began to uplift me, saying every things going to be okay, we all just need to leave it in God's hands, I just sat there thinking, is every thing really going to be okay ? How will we make it without the help of our dad ? Him being the man of the house making the most money and me and my brothers not having jobs because we were so young was really going to make it hard on my mom. But not once did my mom think of anything like that well maybe a few times but she never let it get to her she always wanted to stay strong for us.Seeing her speak those encouraging words helped me help her in the end, we all made it through the hard times and now me and my family are doing good , all of us are successful and are at a point in our life where life couldn't get any better! We all attend church which has influenced our life 100% without the word of God how would we have come this far through all the tears and the emotional breakdowns ?
           Word of wisdom can really help uplift a person as you can see in my story , we started from the bottom and now we came up. My family isn't perfect but I promise you everything we've been through only made us who we are today.

Teen Mom 2 New Season Promo

      Teen mom is a TV show that involves teen girls who've became pregnant at a young age and are facing the challenges of motherhood. The director of Teen Mom 2 is Morgan J Freeman, some of the girls who role in the TV show are  Jenelle Evans , Kailyn Lawry , Chelsea Houska , Leah Messer-Calvert and of course their husbands/ ex husbands. I recommend watching Teen mom 2 because it really gives us a first at hand look of how teen pregnancy can be , along with dealing with the child's father and also,  being able to communicate with him and not always be fighting, I  watch teen mom personally because , I like listening to their drama and how they're life is , it interest me to see how they will end up and how they got this far with the little help they've had throughout the child's life. Another reason why I recommend Teen Mom 2 to people is because we could be going through the same stuff they go through and maybe it could possibly help us learn how to handle a situation and how to overlook some of the obstacles that have come in the way.
    Each girl in Teen Mom 2 kind of go through the same things , they are all trying to overcome getting pregnant at a young age , which isn't bad but to me is very hard to do.If you watch teen mom you already know what each girl has basically been through , heart break , divorces and just emotional pain. For a woman to go through all that while having kids is probably the hardest thing to go through , I personally don't go through that but I've seen it , my mom has been through and you could just see the pain she was going through at the time that was occurring.

Exam 1

          The first major exam was what I expected as Mr. Still explained everything that would be on the test and how it would be  all short answer questions with some vocabulary. Some parts of the test were difficult to me , as I sat there read and reread some of the questions over and over just to get a good understanding of the material. I wish there were more multiple choice answers on this test , not that the short answer was hard but I feel like multiple choice helps the brain relax some to where we can stop thinking so  hard about the short answer and focus on something a little more easier. To prepare for this test I retyped the exam review to where I could have the question and answer together not written all out and messy. I study about two hours the night before the exam , ate a good and light breakfast then studied again right before the exam just so I could refresh my brain with the material I had studied the night before. Getting a good amount of sleep before a test will also help you . My attention span is very short , so being able to study for long periods of time for me is very hard. I either get distracted or procrastinate the entire time. I would spend more time studying the vocabulary , as I didn't remember some of the words. Exam 1 really showed me I need to read carefully and review everything we've learned leading up to the test , as everything is on the test.

Success

                      In Mr. Rollins video , he says "sometimes your great ambitions will be momentarily , stymied, thwarted and, marginalized by those who were perhaps luckier , come from money , where college was a given ", I took what he said and thought about it long and hard. I then put it into my own words and finally realized what it meant , Rollins is saying not everyone is the same , we do not all come from a wealthy family and not all of us are able to get right into college. We all must work for what we want in life for some people it might be a lot easier and for others it might be a lot harder. "You will encounter people who will never have to pay in full , they get to wreck the room and never have to clean it ,they can get all the way through high school and never understand where a dollar comes from because they just get and give it to them". Rollins to me explains this last quote to us to show us not all people have always worked for what they wanted but,  for us not to feel like we aren't good enough or for people like this to get to us , which in reality he's saying some people really don't know the value of things because they've always got it handed to them. I myself can actually count as one of those people , I've always got stuff handed to me and never had to work for anything throughout my life , I always got told I was "rich" or "spoiled". Which I really didn't see it like that , I felt that my parents just made sure we were alright , but at a point in my life it stopped and I actually started working for the stuff I have.He also says " If you have an idea of what you want to do in your future you have to go at it with an monastic-obsession , you have to go at it single-mindedly and let nothing get in your way". You have to understand the meanings of monastic-obsession and single-mindedly before you can even understand the quote itself. Rollins is saying we need to go get it with a lot of dedication and by secluding your self to make it where you want to be.  As I watched the video further it caught my attention that Rollins I feel as if Mr. Rollins is speaking to show us how we shouldn't give up so easily and always push through everything so we can be the best we can be not worrying what anyone else has to say.Rollins suffered from depression and ended up taking medicine for it , i can relate to this very much so I once had to take depression pills , after a while I decided I needed to work on myself so I can actually be successful and not worry about anything holding me back.Rollins learned he couldn't just give up  on the stuff he wanted.This video helped me understand why it is so important to just focus on yourself and better yourself.

Who Am I ?

                            My name is Adrianne Arevalo I am 18 years old , born and raised in Bryan, Texas. I have two brothers my older brother just turned 24 and the other one is eleven months younger than me which makes him 17. I am currently employed at McDonalds  , I've worked there for about two years now. I graduated from Rudder High School ,I loved all the teachers rudder had , they always made sure you were okay and always wanted to see you be successful and wished the best for you. I would say the teachers were always hard on us but if I did id be lying , like I said before they made sure we were successful and on the right track. As of right now I am studying to become a teacher. Ever since I was a little girl I've always wanted to be a kindergarten teacher , with that being said id love to be a kindergarten teacher but if that doesn't work out first through fifth would be okay as well. I chose kindergarten because I work really well with kids , to me high school kids would be such a pain !  After blinn I plan on transferring to Sam Houston State University , it has always been a dream of mine since I was little to attend Sam. In order to attend Sam I need to stay focused and take care of my responsibilities at blinn so I can be ready to transfer.

          I've always had an interest in softball , I played t-ball then of course softball all the way till my sophomore year in high school. I stopped playing my sophomore year , I didn't like that every coach had a favorite player on the team. I always asked myself "why am I doing everything everybody else is doing but only playing one time out of the entire game.?"  that hit me hard so I had to decide what I was going to do. I chose to focus on my academics more and prepare for college. I could have went so far in softball but I let the little things get to me. As a player I never showed my real talent I was always shy to actually show out , if it wasn't for being shy I could have been a hell of a softball player.
       My family has always gone through everything with me , always supported and motivated me through everything I've done. Being able to  have them do that and always being able to count on them has made my life a lot easier. I'm so thankful and blessed to have them , I honestly don't know where id be without my family. Once I graduate college I can finally say I not only did this for myself but also for my family.