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?