Cans Part 2

My english class won that pizza/donut party.

My teacher, Mr Haskett, says that our bucket was overflowing with cans (and you know how big those Second Harvest can buckets are--pretty big). He also said barely anyone else in any of the other classes donated to their cans. So we won by a landslide. Yay! 

But isn't that sad? Barely anyone donated to their buckets. 

Forget about the pizza party in the end and think, for a moment, what this means. Lets imagine, for a moment, that the few classes that participated in this contest represent the world (or the USA). My class, my one class, out of about ten other classes, donated enough to overfill the bucket. But none of the other classes even made a layer of cans on the bottom of their bucket. If there are 32 students per class, and ten classes participating, that means 320 students participated. Now of course, not every student will participate anyway; so in just my class, I imagine about 20 to 25 students participated, myself included. That means, out of 320 students, only about 25 students donated cans. That's only 7.8% of the total participating people. 

7.8%.

Now imagine if that was the world. Out of seven billion people, that means only 546,000,000 people donated cans. That might look like a large number--that's because it is--but compared to seven billion, 5.46x10^8 people is rather small. 

Okay, so maybe that wasn't the best comparison; to me that number looks outrageously large; but the reality is that there are poor people out there who live on the streets and don't rummage up enough money to buy themselves even a whopper at Burger King, and kids who don't have parents anymore, and adults that don't even have jobs anymore, and only 7.8% of the populace has the guts to go down to Safeway and spend $15 on 15 cans of food--enough to give at least 10 people a meal. 

If people weren't so interested in only themselves, maybe the world would be a better place. Sometimes you have to reach down and help those who have tripped get back to their feet. 

Careers

Before I launch into my topic for today, I want to get something off my chest.

I created this blog because half of my friends are in AP Language, which is the AP English class for juniors at my high school, and in AP Lang they had to create a blog. From what I understand, this blog is to track/discuss the career(s) they're interested in.

Now, I've never really been good at choosing things--most of my life, many of my choices have been chosen for me. So last year, when we had programming and were supposed to choose our classes, I was stuck between AP Lang and English 3 Honors. I wanted to take AP Lang because most of my friends were planning to take it and because it looked like loads of fun. However, I went to talk with the English 3 Honors teacher and he made English 3 Honors sound like more fun than AP Lang! So I had to choose: friends or fun?

Fortunately, enough of my friends decided not to take AP Lang, so either decision equaled fun. However, I chose English 3 Honors, and therefore did not have to create a blog.

But I felt like it anyway, so here I am. :)

Anywayyyyy, my friends in AP Lang have to discuss topics of interest regarding careers, so so am I.

Sometime in middle school I joined a website called deviantART.com, where artists upload art that they have drawn/illustrated (either digitally or traditionally). I became addicted, in a way, and uploaded my own art--however, my art skill was... lacking. Of course, I was only a sixth grader, but gradually I improved and now my style is at least satisfying.

However, one thing I decided to do with my life, after school, was art. I decided I wanted to create a career based around art. I wanted to become an animator or graphics artist, and work for PIXAR.

All throughout middle school and into high school, I wanted to become an animator. I set my sights on the horizon, and saw PIXAR standing at the finish line. I dreamed big. But I barely did anything to get there. Middle school I spent trying to get straight A's and joining Advanced Band and learning Spanish. Freshman year I continued my Spanish education, dropped Band, and focused on passing the classes assigned to me. Sophomore year I took another year of Spanish, but failed to look for classes that might help me get to PIXAR. And now Junior year isn't any different (except I dropped Spanish and picked up Band again).

It wasn't until last year that I began to doubt my ambition. Do I really want to become an animator? I'm unsure. I've started looking at other professions: acting (which I've always wanted to do--as a Kindergartener, my dream job was being a singing, ballerina actress. Unfortunately, I'm not much of a dancer), singing (that singing part of the ballerina actress dream), directing. And I've decided, for sure, whatever job I happen to do in the future, it has to be connected to movies. I figure since I love movies and tv shows, why not aim to do what I love?

I've decided I want to join a school play--get some acting down my belt, if that's what I really want to do--or a musical--acting and singing combined into one; two birds with one stone. I'm not going to take any classes next year that do not interest me 4,000%. I'm going to focus on me and what I want to do instead of worrying about college or what my parents think of me.

Cans

Do you see that? They are cans. Fifteen cans that I bought for fifteen dollars.

They are headed for the Second Harvest Food Bank collection bucket in my first period English class. To be completely honest, I originally bought them so that my class could win an English class competition between several other classes. If my class won, we would get a pizza or donut party, depending on what everyone votes for (because first period is early in the morning so pizza doesn't really make much sense). However, walking home from the store, I felt so proud in my investment to donate canned food to those who don't have the money to buy food every day. Because I bought these cans with my own money, not my parents'. Because I carried these cans back from the store, not by driving. Because I didn't pick 15 cans of green beans like my parents would have, but 15 cans of (somewhat) yummy food.

Walking home with these cans, I felt like the entire world was right for once. Lately, I've felt stressed about almost everything, so this feeling was completely new and refreshing. 

I still want that pizza party though.

People

I was thinking earlier, in study hall, about people. I thought, "I believe in people." And I got to thinking, do I really believe in people? Why do I believe in people?

I hate people. People bitch and moan. People complain a lot when things don't go their way. They hate other people, which only leads to a circle of hate between everybody. They create stereotypes about other people and expect everyone to be okay with them. They despise, abhor, detest, dislike, resent, scorn, spite, object, loathe, and have malevolent, repugnant feelings towards other people.They put themselves before other people in any situation, especially when material objects or money are involved. They are racist bigots who often only care about their own well-being and fortune.
People are easily hated simply because they hate other people.

But I love people. People are helpful, kind; rather amiable sometimes, too. They help each other in times of distress--isn't that why homeless shelters, the Salvation Army, and the YMCA were invented? People love other people.

Unfortunately, most people choose to see the negatives in other people over the positives; most people choose to fill their life with hatred than love. That's a choice--you can fill your life with love if you choose to make the effort. But life is so full of conveniences lately that if it takes more than the flick of a finger to do, most people choose not to do it.

I love The Script, an Irish band, not only because they sound amazing but also because of the lyrics. In their latest album, #3, The Script wrote a song called "Give The Love Around." This song, while not being my favorite, has heartening lyrics. The song begins like this:

It all comes from the top and it spreads right round
If you treat a man wrong, he's gonna pass it on down
To the next in line, who's probably his wife
Bringin' up his kids now watchin' mama cry
And they pick it up cause they learn everything
Life has a funny way of going in a ring
End up growing up in trouble with the law
Standing in the cuffs that the father once wore

Now it seems that every brand new generation
Have all been growing up with cracks in the foundation
They're tryna fill the holes of a whole damn nation
That's lost its trust (That's lost its trust)
We gotta change before the train leaves the station
And realize the revolution in a revelation
It takes blood, sweat, tears and innovation
It starts with us (It starts with us)

Yeah it starts by givin' love to your brother, givin' love to your sister
Givin' love to your missis, love to your mister
Givin' love to your friends, love to your foes
Give the love around and back around it goes

If only people would listen, truly listen, to this song, and realize how true it is. When one person does something bad to another, that person will spread the bad down through his connections of people. For example, this song mentions a man who spreads negatives to his wife, which then influences their children to follow along. The problem, this ever-growing problem of hate and negative feelings, can be fixed if we "give the love around", because "life has a funny way of going in a ring."

If you are in a negative mood, and everyone and everything around you only seems to make that mood worse, your instinct is to spread negativity and hate. Like, when your teacher has a bad day, and you can tell that they're having a bad day because you can practically "feel the tension in the air". It's that saying you might have heard, something about one bad person ruining the entire mood; One unhappy person can spoil a room-full of happy people; One piece of moldy cheese spoils the entire package.

Well, it's true.

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” --Mahatma Gandi

You're the only one who can make others believe in you. So do I really believe in people? While I dislike the negatives that people just insist on throwing into the world, I do like the positives and all the people who continue to prove that positive is possible.