The Story Behind the Christmas Tree

            Today was the day that my family decorated our Christmas tree. It went the same as it always does. My brother took about six ornaments, put them up, and sat down and talked, my mom and I diligently put up ornaments, and my dad left the room to watch the Bears tank yet another game. During this annual process, I started to wonder how the tradition of putting up Christmas trees came into affect, so I decided to do a little bit of research on the subject.

            According to an article I found, many different societies had the same general tradition of putting up some type of greenery during the winter. They believed that the color green was a symbol of the green plants that would eventually come once the winter season was over and spring came. The actual Christmas tree originated in Germany in the 16^th century, during which Christians would bring decorated trees into their homes. These trees were introduced to America in the 19^th century, but were originally frowned upon as “pagan mockery.” However, the tradition eventually caught on, and Christmas trees became what they are today.

            I still want to know, though, why is it that Christians decided to decorate evergreen trees during the Christmas season, instead of just decorating their houses with other greenery. Why go to so much effort on one tree when you are just going to take it down two weeks later. My dad always complains about having a tree, and I many times wonder why we are doing this if we are just going to take it down very shortly? What is the motivation and rationale behind Christmas tree decorating?

Television: Exaggeration at its Finest...

            It’s hard to believe that the finale of The Biggest Loser, one of my favorite shows, is almost here. Yes, I know it’s sort of weird that a weight loss show is what a teenage girl decides to watch on Tuesday nights, but it just stuck for me. I think it’s because of the competitive aspect of the show, being an athlete myself, but it has also given me a lot of insight and motivation to never get to the point that the people on the show had gotten to. However, as many positive things as the show gives me, sometimes I wonder how much it really does for its own contestants.

            I did a little bit of research on the pros and cons of the show and came across a lot of very interesting concepts. According to one article, the show helps people be more accountable to themselves in terms of their workouts and their diets, and sends the message to both the contestants and the viewers that hard work is necessary and fad diets will not work. However, the cons seem to heavily out weigh the pros. One that stood out to me was that the show does not reflect reality.

That’s when it hit me that a lot of shows are completely ignorant of reality. Take House for example. It’s an incredible show, but it’s hard to imagine that some insane man can continuously come up with last minute diagnoses as well as use so many unorthodox methods like he does. So now I wonder, why do so many shows stray so far away from reality? Is it just an effort to entertain us, or is extreme the only thing we respond to?

Family Time

            Upon reading a fellow classmate’s blog about breakfast, I began to ponder the question of why families no longer sit down to breakfast together. Then, as I thought about it a little more, I realized that I could count the people I know that still eat dinner as a family on one hand. Eating meals as a family seems to be a thing of the past. No longer do families regularly eat dinner together. But why is that?

            I did a little bit of research to find the answer to that question and it’s very straight forward. According to an article I read, there are two main factors that I stood out. First off, the women of our world today are a lot more independent than they were forty years ago. They are getting jobs and therefore can’t be that “stay at home mom” with a piping hot meal ready for the family the moment they walk in the door. Instead, they are cramped for time because of work and barely fit dinner into their busy lifestyles. On top of that, kids are a lot more active than they used to be. Therefore, parents have to drive them around, pick them up, and keep track of them all afternoon, which is another huge time killer. And does this benefit us?

            Apparently not. Families that do not eat dinner together put their children at a significantly higher risk of being obese because the kids are more likely to go get fast food as they are not eating at home. Kids are also more likely to get into drugs because of the lack of influence they get from their parents, since they no longer spend “dinner time” with their families. Overall, I think our nation’s families are becoming disconnected, and a lot of that has to do with not spending just fifteen minutes eating dinner together. One can only wonder what might happen if we began eating dinner together again.

Another Year, Another Turkey

It seems that Thanksgiving is upon us once again. To me, the idea of Thanksgiving has changed over the years. What used to be a simple holiday to get together with my weird relatives and eat a ton has now become a stressful time spent away from home in some random city in Ohio playing tennis. This year is going to be a new experience yet again. I am going to be spending this Thanksgiving doing college visits. Sometimes I wonder why this holiday is even here anymore. Is it just for families to go on vacations and for college students to come back home, or are we actually giving thanks for the things in our lives?

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGS0qSHuias&feature=relmfu

            Have we veered off from the original purpose of this holiday? Why are we even celebrating it any more if we can’t truly be thankful for things? I can name a few simple things that I can be thankful for right off the bat:

§       My family

§       My friends

§       Having a safe home

§       Having enough money to go to college

§       The opportunities that I have been given in both academics and athletics

And there are many more. We as Americans need to remember that there is a lot of meaning behind this holiday. The Pilgrims came to Plymouth in 1620 with the intention to build a new community. They made do with almost nothing for so long, yet on that very first thanksgiving, they were able to find so many things to be thankful for. So let’s all do the same. I’ve been getting the vibe from a lot of friends and family members that they are never satisfied, constantly wanting more, but never being thankful for what they do have. I too have a desire for more, but I also think that it’s possible to be happy with what we do have. So let’s all be like the pilgrims. Happy Thanksgiving!!

The Pain of Divorce

            Today I was having a conversation with a few friends and I came to realize that not only did I notice that it revolved around different topics of divorce, including the recent Kim Kardashian divorce and my friend’s parents’ recent divorce, but I was the only one of us whose parents are not divorced. It sort of hit me that divorce is pretty much a given in many marriages lately. So I decided to look into the facts…

            I went to the National Census Bureau online, which led me to a website that gave some pretty shocking statistics. The marriage rate per 1000 people is 6.8, and the divorce rate per 1000 people is 3.4. That means that a staggering 50% of marriages in the United States end in divorce.

Just absorbing that fact made me realize how much hurt our nation must be going through on a daily basis. My best friend’s parents are going through an ugly divorce right now, and it hurts me to see her like this. I know that a lot of people are going through the same struggle. With statistics like these, it’s easy to assume that most everyone in America is either getting a divorce, has already gotten a divorce, or is connected in someway to someone who is getting or has gotten a divorce.

What I really want to know is why so many people are getting divorces these days. Could it be like in Kim Kardashian’s case where she didn’t quite think things through, and wasn’t ready to be married? Or could it be that our human nature is to not stay with one period for a long period of time? I don’t really know what the answer is, but what I do know is that this has to stop because it is affecting too  many of us today.

What Ivy Can Get You...

            During the past week or so, I started to really consider where it is that I want to go for college. For most high school students, the college process is excruciatingly hard. But for me, it’s even harder because not only do I have academics to consider, I also have athletics to consider. Although there are many schools that are very good fits for me in terms of academics, the tennis does not seem to be as strong as I want it to be. Unfortunately, that narrows my list down to mainly the Ivy League schools. But then when I looked at this list, I realized that I would need to step up my tennis and bring it up another level. Then I started to think: Is my list too exclusive? Are Ivy League schools really the best option for me?

            According to an article I read, Ivy League graduates are not always the most affective in the work environment. An executive recruiting for a major chemical company said that being an Ivy League graduate “doesn’t necessarily mean they perform better than employees who have graduated from other colleges. In fact, we’ve found their sense of entitlement can be negative. They tend to not stay on the job long and many overestimate the value they bring to out organization.” It’s not mystery that graduates of prestigious schools can have a lot of confidence that may in some cases turn into arrogance. But I don’t think that takes away from the opportunities given by these schools.

            Not only do Ivy League schools offer “stimulating interaction among some of the world’s top professors and students,” they also set you up for careers with a lot of advantages over those not coming out of Ivy League schools. That’s where I become hooked. Being a competitive person, if you offer me any advantage, no matter what the scenario, I will jump on it in an instant. If getting a jump on others to get a job means going to Ivy, I guess that’s where I want to go.

            However, I am also aware that “these schools give their students an advantage early in their careers. In the long run, however, a person’s experience, performance and ability to relate to others matter far more than the seal on their diploma.” Now that I have weighed the pros and cons of going to an Ivy League school, I have decided that if I stick to my own values and work hard, I can succeed a lot more going there instead of non-Ivys. I know that I will also have a lot more confidence in what I am doing than I would if I went somewhere else. I just wonder if that’s the right decision. Is my mindset too stubborn or is there really some credibility in this idea?

Weighty Decisions

          This past week, I have come to realize that doing the politically smart thing is a lot easier than doing the ultimately and strategically smarter thing. I have recently learned more in depth about two specific instances in our nation’s history, one much more modern that the other. Both of these instances involved a decision that the president had to make, critical to out nation’s future. In one instance, the president did the politically smart thing. In another, the president made the strategically smart decision.

       One of the events I learned about was when President Abraham Lincoln made the decision to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. He did this during the civil war in order to prevent southern sympathizers from hurting the Union’s effort in the war. He knew that with a stronger Union, the chances of them winning the civil war would be a lot greater. On the other hand, this decision was not politically smart because it upset a lot of people, especially the southern sympathizers. At the time, Lincoln was on of the most hated presidents to date. However, because he made the strategically, and ultimately smart decision at the time, he enabled the Union to win the war, and therefore, is one of the most well respected presidents in American history.

       On the other hand, making the politically smart decision doesn’t always make someone a well-respected leader in the long run. I learned about George Bush’s legacy in terms of how he handled our nation’s debt and economy, and found that he was much more interested in pleasing the people than making our nation stronger and handling our nation’s debt the proper way. Instead of trying to pay off the debt, he decided to give numerous tax breaks to the people of our nation, and signed bill after bill regarding saving people money, especially in social security and health care. At the time, many people were incredibly excited about these decisions because it was saving them money. However, when it came to the time of current President Obama’s election, our nation was in a serious economic recession, and our nation’s debt was at its highest since World War II. Looking back now, George Bush’s presidency is not one most people look back on in a positive light.

       Based on the decisions of these two presidents, I have come to the conclusion that our nation puts a lot of pressure on our presidents for short term fixes, we don’t have as much concern for long term decisions and their effects. This puts a lot of pressure on our nation’s presidents to make the politically smart decisions, which tend to not work out as well in the long run, instead of making the smarter decision for our nation’s future as a whole. So now I wonder: Is the sign of a true leader someone that can set aside all of the pressure put on them for short term results, and make their decisions based entirely on the long term goals of his or her nation? Is that what makes a strong leader?

AP: Synonymous to Advanced Pride

            I have come to the conclusion that it is our nature as people to show off. We believe that we need to prove ourselves to be above average. This quality is especially prominent in the New Trier. We have to prove that we are bigger, stronger, faster, smarter, and better than one another. In the academic world at New Trier, our success and strength as students is determined based on two letters that do or do not appear in front of the title of your classes. Those letters are A and P.

            I believe that New Trier is a highly concentrated version of our success-oriented society. Almost everyone feels the need to prove their success. So what better place to conduct a survey with high school students than at New Trier? In my survey, I asked one simple question: What classes are you taking this year? Once the person responded with AP in the title of one of their classes I stopped them, thanked them, and asked the same question to another person. If someone did not respond with any AP’s in their answer, I asked them if they were in any AP’s. The answer every time was no. Likewise, not one person in an AP class neglected to leave that detail out.

            So now I wonder, why is it that we feel the need to distinguish our classes as AP? Why not just say we are in Calculus instead of AP Calculus BC? I truly believe that this is because we all think we need to prove how smart we are. We think that if we can say that we are in an AP class, that people will suddenly think that we are geniuses or something. But that’s just my own hypothesis. Everybody has different motivations and reasons. However, do we all just have this deep desire to constantly prove our intelligence? What is the reason behind all of this AP nonsense?

21st Century Social Classes

            Although our society today is supposedly a classless society, we still find a pecking order in every social interaction. The wealthy and highly talented are given special treatment and the average and sub-par people are pushed to the bottom of the list. I myself have experienced both such extremes.

            I am a competitive tennis player and I travel across the Midwest and to many different destinations all over the country throughout the year. With all of the competition comes a lot of practice, and this being my junior year, I realized I was going to need a little extra. But with my rigorous academic load, I knew I couldn’t cut out study time. So instead I decided to try to get exempted from gym. However, I came to learn that this is a very rare occurrence that people get exempted for the entire year for one sport. I have found myself at the top of the athletic chain at New Trier. I have been given special treatment that most other people don’t get due to the amount of talent I have. I hope I don’t sound arrogant when I say this because the truth is it has taken an immense amount of hard work to get where I have gotten. However, at the same time, I am put on the opposite end of the spectrum in the tennis world.

            I play for the varsity tennis team. I played for them my freshman year and played state. I didn’t play last year due to an injury but when I came back to play this year, I felt that I was treated as if I was lesser than others of my same playing ability. I was in many ways disrespected because I had taken myself out of this status I had earned for myself my freshman year. I had to prove my spot once again just like I had as a freshman. Except this time, I was a junior. I had to climb to the top once again with little aid. I watched other girls of equal and lesser playing ability get special treatment just because of the history they have with the team. It’s a frustrating thing I deal with every day. I think to myself,  “They are no better than me. Why are they given special treatment? Why don’t they have to come to practice every day? Why do they get to just choose their position in the lineup while I have to earn my spot time and time again?” At the end of the day, I am going to state just like them. There are only three girls on the entire team that I believe could have a prayer of beating me, and there’s still no guarantee. So why am I treated as if I am at the bottom of the lineup. I have dealt with our coach laughing in my face and then berating me for telling her one small dissatisfaction with the team, while she turns around and lets other girls on the team completely manipulate her. Is it fair? I don’t believe so. Is it reality? Unfortunately it is and I just have to battle through it.

            Then I take a step back and realize that this is the kind of crap that many Americans deal with every day. They are pushed to the bottom of the food chain and forced to fight an uphill battle. It’s not fair. But it’s a reality in American society. We have to prove our positions over and over again in order to get any kind of reward or treatment. Unfortunately, most of us will never win this battle. But we can at least give it a good fight.

Apple-ution

This morning, I woke up to my alarm, checked the weather on my weather app, checked my email and facebook on my computer, ate breakfast, plugged my iPod into my ears and turned on my music before I went for a walk. Now besides eating breakfast, all of my activities that I did this morning involved an Apple product. In our society today, a majority of activities done by people, no matter how simple or complicated, are completed with some type of Apple technology. With the passing of Steve Jobs, our world is now wondering, is our world at a standstill in the technology world, or is someone going to step up and continue to revolutionize?

 In my opinion, Steve Jobs made some of the most versatile products, the iPad in particular. Never have we been able to do so many things with a single device. From writing a paper to checking emails to simply just playing a game, the the iPad has provided us with a unique opportunity to do things in one convenient location. With this innovation of technology, as well as countless others, Steve Jobs has revolutionized the world.

Our world is now a changed place. We are more productive and innovative than ever. Apple products are used to do just about anything. If Jobs had been able to continue his career, I wouldn't of been surprised if Apple had come out with a ridiculous product like the iToilet...

With Steve Jobs around, I believe that anything in the technology world was possible. But now that he's gone, the question remains, what now? Is our world going to remain this way, or will somebody else step up? The answer, I believe, is somewhere in the near future...

The Value of the Best

          After discussing a classmate’s blog today about the American value of winning and being the best, I began to ponder that idea and really wonder. What do people really think about being the best? So I took an anonymous survey of 20 people I know. I asked them if they would rather work really hard at something and get a bad result from it, or would they rather not work hard at something but get a good result. For instance, would they prefer to work really hard in a class and learn a lot but get a C or would they prefer giving minimal effort and get an A? At the end of the survey, I tallied the results and counted 17 students preferred to get the A with minimal effort, only 3 preferred working hard and not always getting a positive outcome.

          After that survey, I was able to come to the conclusion that based on those results, we as humans prefer the more positive outcome. However, how could I saw that this view was truly American? I had taken views of only American people. To solidify my conclusion, I needed an outside opinion. So I asked my tennis coach, who happened to be born and raised in Israel. I asked him the same question, phrased it the same way, and the response I got supported my claim that the desire to be number one is an American point of view. My coach then went into specifics, telling me that in Europe in general, there is a stronger desire to work hard and perhaps end up succeeding. For instance, he said that a lot more tennis players in Europe go pro, even if they don’t know if they will be able to make it into the top 10 in the world. However, in America, much fewer player turn pro, and the ones that do only turn pro because they have experts telling them they will succeed. After hearing him talk about that I was certain that the value of being the best was completely American.

          Now I know that after asking a few people a simple question can’t validate a cultural view as only American, however I do know that it does create a stronger claim that this view is more American. Although I cannot say with absolute certainty that the desire to be the best is completely American and no other country, I can say that it most definitely is not a view of all humans. There is definitely a societal impact, and I can say with the utmost confidence that American society has engrained this belief right into the stitches of our identities.

The Price of Modern Society

            Lisa wakes up at 6:15, takes shower, grabs a quick bite to eat, and get a coffee at Starbucks before heading off to work in the morning. She then works hard all day, struggling under the pressure to make sales because she knows she has bills she is struggling to pay. She’s been warned by the electric company that she has a week to pay her bill before her power gets shut off, and she’s already lost water twice. Why then, does she continue to buy her morning coffee at Starbucks? Does she really need to pay four dollars every morning for a simple cup of coffee?

            According to an article written by USA Today, Starbucks has “changed what we’ll pay for coffee” drastically since it went public in 1992. People are now willing to pay four dollars for a cup of coffee that they could have easily prepared for themselves at home for a fraction of the price. Why then, do we find it acceptable to go to Starbucks every day and buy overpriced coffee? According to USA Today, “We live in a society where people think $5 is $1 because of Starbucks,” and therefore, we include it in our daily routines, not even realizing the hole it burns in our savings over time.

            I decided to do a little research and see how much people could potentially be spending on just Starbucks every year. One of the most popular items on the menu is the Caramel Macchiato, which costs $2.80 for a tall. Over a week, that’s $19.60, a month, $84, and over the course of an entire year that’s a whopping $1022! I also decided to look up the average electric bills and average water bills. Per month an electric bill was about $95.66, and a water bill was $51. Now if Lisa hadn’t gotten that Caramel Macchiato every day, she could have paid for almost eleven months of electricity with her Starbucks money, or twenty months of water. In a nutshell, Lisa would have been a lot better off financially if she hadn’t gotten that morning coffee.

            So the question remains, why do we do this? Why do we continually pay so much for coffee? We could easily make our coffee at home, which would probably not only save us money, but also time in the morning. The answer is simple. According to another blog about Starbucks, it has “already touched culture and left a lasting mark.” Starbucks has found its way into every nook and cranny of our society. It has even found its way into schools, one of them being my very own, New Trier. Because it has made such an imprint on our society, we are quick to go throw our money away at there without even batting an eye at it.

So now I ask one final time, why? What has made Starbucks this huge phenomenon? Why is it that we allowed Starbucks to impact our culture so much?

Truth Hurts

            A huge knot formed in the bottom of my throat. I tried to convince myself this couldn’t be true. I didn’t want to believe it. I wanted to scream. I wanted to run away. I just wanted things to change. I couldn’t believe that they would do such a thing. They were too good. They were some of the last people I would expect to do this. As I sat there in awe, I listened as my friend told me about that fateful night when three of our closest friends succumbed to marijuana.

            As I listened, I wondered why they did it, why they would want to, or even consider it. This was one of the hardest things I ever had to hear. I was filled with so many emotions. I spent all day consumed by thoughts about them and why they would be so selfish. Why did they do it? And more importantly, why didn’t they tell me? I was supposed to be one of their closest friends.

            I started to worry what could happen to them. According to an article I read, the effects can start after a short period and can have effects like problems with memory and learning, distorted perception, trouble with thinking and problem solving, loss of concentration, increased heart rate, anxiety, and panic attacks. Then I started looking into the long-term effects. Those included cancer, breathing issues, damage to the immune system, and damage to the reproductive system. I was shocked after learning all this that my friends could potentially do this to themselves. I wanted to stop them, but knew they wouldn’t listen. I talked to one of my friends today about it and I felt like I was talking to a wall. She doesn’t think she’s harming herself in any way. I’m heartbroken to know that she is willing to throw away her health for something stupid like that.

            How many people actually harm themselves like that? How many people make an impact on their friends all over the country? I looked into this as well. I got a lot of results, but the average amount was around 10-12 percent of adolescents smoking marijuana. How many people after that does it affect? People don’t realize how painful it is to watch unless they’ve done it. I never thought I’d have this problem. I never thought I’d have to watch my own friends throw their lives away like this. But now it’s too late. An inanimate object the size of their finger is now the center of their attention. I wonder who else sits powerless, unable to change their loved one’s minds, as they are at the mercy of a stupid joint of weed. I now ask, who else? Who else has been affected by this?

A Jobless Nation?

Tonight, as I was reading Where I Lived, and What I Lived For, I noticed a connection between the ideas the author presented about the way people in America live their lives, and the impact our values have on the "job crisis." Many Americans right now are concerned about the lack of availability of jobs right now. In an article I read, there was a lot of concern about technology taking away jobs. However, the author seemed to be against the idea of having a job. He "understands that we all want paychecks-- or at least money. We want food, shelter, clothing, and all the things that money buys us. But do we all really want jobs?" (CNN article) I agree with the author of this article in the sense that our society has recently turned its focus from productivity to employment. We have begun to look at our long term goals too much (which is important also) instead of trying to get the most out of every day.

According to Walden, the author of Where I Lived, and What I Lived For, "The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life." Americans are waking up every day with only the goal of succeeding eventually, instead of appreciating life every day for what it's worth. Where is enjoyment of the little things in life? What happened to the simplicity of life? Is our society productive, or has it just allowed us to become engulfed in all of its complexities?

Both of these authors parallel the same idea that our society has become incredibly productive on its own. As stated in the CNN article, our society "is productive enough that it could probably shelter, feed, educate, and even provide health care for its entire population with just a fraction of us actually working." So then why can't our society stop dwelling on the material things we would like to eventually have? Do we really need to stay up until 2 in the morning just so we can keep our job that will eventually make us feel at "peace?" Enjoyment of every day of life is a lot more valuable than having a "career" for a living and worrying every day about achieving this lifelong goal that most of us will not achieve. Life is not meant to be wasted on worrying about getting enjoyment out of our life eventually. As Walden said, "Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour. If we refused, or rather used up, such paltry information as we get, the oracles would distinctly inform us how this might be done."