I recently read a news story about a school in Moberly, Missouri and it’s effort to help hungry kids this holiday season. The school filled one hundred and six backpacks with food and lined them up in the hallways of the elementary school. The idea is that the children, who would otherwise go hungry, can nonchalantly snag a pack full food and schlep in out without having to be identified as hungry or poor. The school began to realize that while kids were getting breakfast and lunch during the week at school, a lot of them were going hungry over the weekends. The backpacks are filled with kid-friendly, healthy-ish food items that are easy and safe to prepare if an adult is not able to help out. Many kids have single working parents who do not have the time or money to make meals for their kids. This program has actually had a lot of success in the small rural community. Many families that previously needed the assistance from the backpack plan have begun to return the favor after they got back on their feet by bringing extra food items to the school whenever possible.
Just think about all of the cans of food you have shoved back in your cabinets that you will never use or have already expired. It may just be dusty, worthless can of beans to you, but there is sustenance and nutrition in that can that you are obviously lucky enough to not be in need of. Now obviously, you wouldn’t want to donate your expired food items to anybody, throw those away. But if you know you aren’t gonna use any of the non-expired junk in the back of your cabinets (and you know you won’t), why not just give it away?

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Earlier, Derek and I were discussing the random, useless things that we have learned during our lives that ended up being a total waste of time. I remember when I was in about fourth grade, we were required to memorize a song that had every state and it’s capital in it, so we would then know all of the capitals in the United States. Well, sure, I memorize the entire song and can still recite most of it to this day. But, did they not understand that we weren’t actually learning anything but a song? It was in alphabetical order, and if I do want to remember the capital of a state that I can’t just get on the top of my head, the song doesn’t work because I have to go through the entire thing. Useless. And, he was talking about cursive. When was the last time I wrote anything in cursive? I hope they aren’t still making kids learn this and waste so much time on it. The only cursive I use is my signature, and I bet that would have taken me about a day to learn when I was in second grade. I can’t even read what someone is trying to write to me when they write in cursive most of the time. Now a days I’d be surprised is kids are even learning how to write because everything is done on the computer now. Things have changed, and I would like to think the school system understands this and plans accordingly. NO more cursive!

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I just watched a short segment on CNN about a young girl that texts all the time. Just like all people do these days. They showed her phone bill and it said that she sends around eight thousand texts a month. Now, I’ve never looked at my own text messages on my phone bill, but I don’t think I can send that many. It’s just a normal form of communication now that everyone does all the time, because it’s faster than making a phone call and you can do it at any time. So, they told the girl to give up texting for a week, and suddenly she was getting better grades in school, talking with her friends and family more, and even sleeping better. Blah blah blah. I don’t think text messaging is going to really interfere with your life that much. If you’re losing sleep because of your text messaging, that’s a pretty big problem and maybe you should quit for more than a week. I really don’t think texting would some how cause your grades to suffer, maybe she’s just stupid with or with out the phone. They are trying to make something out of nothing. I can agree that it’s taking over person to person interactions, but I don’t think it’s making this extent of a problem in people’s lives. If any thing is actually causing problem in your sleep, grades, or relationships, whether it’s a cell phone or anything, I think you should make yourself limit your use.

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For a summer during college I decided to take a few hours that I didn’t want to have to deal with all semester. At Tech, you can take a class for three hours credit in only one month during the summer. You just have to go to that class Monday through Friday, for a few hours a day, and then one month later BAM you’re done with the class. I don’t dig much on statistics, so I decided to take that during the summer and get it out of the way. And, let me tell you, that was probably the worst summer ever. Spreading stats out is bad enough, only having to go a few times a week, but going every single day for an entire month was hell. It’s impossible to cram everything you need to learn into an entire semester into one month, but he sure as hell tried. I don’t remember anything from that class, because it was stuff in so hard and then I was tested on it, and it immediately ran out of my head because it was too full. I don’t understand how people do summer school every year. I need those few months as a break from the spring and fall semesters. What’s even worse is they offer two summer sessions, so you can take two months in a row like that. I’m definitely not interested in my brain to stop working, so that was never an option for me. I’m lucky, school was set at an easy pace for me, I never took more than 15 hours a semester and I was done in four years. I have no idea why I decided to take those classes in the summer, but if I had taken statistics for an entire semester I know I would have wished I had just done the month cram. It only sucked for that month, but that month sucked bad enough to where I am still complaining about it.

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I am a recent graduate from Texas Tech University. The best college in the world. And I know that all the other students here agree with me. I love my school. One of the best parts of Tech are the football games. Sometimes, we may not win every game we play, but going to the games when they are in Lubbock is so much fun. I love the fans here. We are the biggest asshole fans in the Big 12 Conference for sure, but it’s hard for me to venture out and say we’re the worst cause I haven’t had to deal with anyone else really. We yell, we dress up, we cuss in our school song (students change the lyrics, of course it’s not written that way), we throw stuff, you name it we do it. I don’t sit in the student section anymore, or should I say I don’t stand there anymore because that’s all the do the entire game. I’m a graduate now (ugh), so I sit in a different section that is still close to the students. A few years ago, we played Texas here in Lubbock. I was sitting in the student section and noticed someone in burnt orange near me. Being how we are, everyone started screaming and pointing fake swords at the guy. All you babies out there think this is mean, but come on, the guy is sitting in a section that only Texas Tech students can even get into, so he is obviously not supposed to be there. Someone even tried to give the guy a red shirt so he could stay, and he refused to put it on. We scream, event staff comes, and the guy is kicked out. That’s how it’s done. Don’t be stupid. Maybe we didn’t win the game, so what, but that’s never the point of the story now is it!

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High school pep rallys used to be so much fun! I grew up in a very small town so football was obviously a huge deal. Ridiculous actually… Every Friday the whole school would look forward to skipping out on 30 minutes of class to sing and yell and act like an idiot pretty much. We were the Bulldogs and very proud of it! My sophmore year, our football team went undefeated until the 2nd round of the playoffs. It was pretty damn awesome. What was even more awesome was that we got to have quite a few extra pep rallys because no one could get enough of the celebrating. The band would play this awesome entrance song and all the football players would walk in thinking they were the coolest thing on the planet, and to us, they were. There would usually be a guest speaker, then a coach would speak, then one of the football boys would stand up and the crowd would go crazy! They’d mumble a few words into the microphone and all the guys would start hoopin and hollarin. The cheerleaders also played a big part in the festivities. They were pretty much in charge of getting the whole school pumped up and excited for the upcoming game and they always did an awesome job. They danced, put on skits, and led every pep rally. It’s a little pathetic that I even remember this much or care for that matter but it’s fun to reminisce sometimes.

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While I was in college I spent a pretty decent chunk of my time at the library. I don’t think I actually ever used the library stacks until my second year there, but I was always downstairs on the computers. If I sit down and make myself focus on something, away from my cell phone, my own house, and my TV, I could get huge projects and 10 page papers done easily. I just have a tendency to get side tracked easy, and once I did it was almost impossible for me to get back on task. The best part about the Texas Tech library is that you are sitting in a little brown cubicle , so you really can’t see much of anything when you are working on the computer. The worst part: That place is FULL of college students. So, for one split second I look away and see some people, I was on a people watching streak that was hard to break. What also made it difficult is that my friends would find out I was going to be at the library and they would want to come have “study parties”, which meant we would sit there and talk the entire time and do no home work. So, after I graduated I figured I’d never be in that place again. I remember right before my first final I was in there with a good friend of mine, and assumed it’d be the last time I’d ever need to be in the library on campus. A few weeks ago, I had to print something out, and going there was my only option at the time. I walked in and immediately missed being in college, it’s so strange that a place I was always so stressed out in make me feel like all I wanted to do was be in there again. I don’t plan on going back again, but that one time was enough to make me miss the college lifestyle.

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Public school vs. private school is often a big argument. Having gone to both, it’s easy to see why people get so worked up on the topic but I don’t think they’re arguing any issues that are going to be resolved anytime soon. I honestly couldn’t tell you if I liked one better than the other because there are pros and cons to both sides. Private schools are just that, private. Smaller classes, uniforms, religious… a few adjectives that can be used to describe public schools. Personally, I loved wearing uniforms. That’s something you don’t hear someone say everyday but it’s the truth! It was nice to wake up in the morning and not have to worry about what I was going to wear. It was one less thing to have to worry about. I was never thrilled to go to religion class. It’s not that I didn’t believe in what I was being taught, I just felt like it was being forced down our throats and that’s definitely a topic that should never be forced. Public schools are great! Some might say that it’s not as good of an education but I believe education has everything to do with the teacher. There are a lot of extracurricular activities and bigger classes. Public schools are also able to offer more courses to take. Although public schools do have their cliques and bully problems, as long as you keep your head in the game, public schooling will take you far in life.

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