Materialism

I agree with both Amel Saleh and Lauren Smith for different reasons. Saleh mentions that some people “expect” presents, I agree with her on this because some people have made Christmas too materialistic and don’t see this holiday season for the true meaning. Then, I agree with Smith’s essay, because she mentions that although there are some rude people that are too into the shopping and presents than the true meaning, they should not be the stereotype of all holiday shoppers.

            I do believe that some people automatically expect to receive many expensive presents and it may have made them greedy, but I believe they see Christmas as a holiday just for receiving gifts, because of the way they were raised. There of course are those who genuinely are grateful for receiving a simple gift from a loved one. I suppose presents are a holiday tradition, but some people do go overboard on the amount and price of presents.

            Christmas is a holiday I really enjoy spending with my family, mainly because they all make extremely good food, but also because it is one of the holidays that a lot of my family members have off from work, so a lot of them are able to join us for family time. My family does a gift exchange every year. On thanksgiving we put the names of those who would like to participate in a hat, whosever name we get that is who we would have to purchase a gift for. Since the names are folded up we don’t know which family member we will pick, and we don’t know who picked us until we give the gifts on Christmas Eve, but of course my immediate family knows considering my mom and I are the ones who go pick out the gifts. Christmas in my family is not at all seen to be for just the presents we receive, and I am so blessed that my family continues to value the true meaning of Christmas and how it all started.

Fuel for the Brain

The fall academic semester of 2014, so far has been good. With only 3 classes including Math, English, and Management Food Preparation, it feels like I am taking a lot more. Although I did experience some obstacles through out this semester I feel like I am still coming a long way on improving them. My classes this semester have been fast paced so it has pushed me to not get lazy and procrastinate as much as I use to, even though I still procrastinate a little.

This semester I am taking 2 out of 3 online classes. My math class is 100% online; in a way I like it because I get to do my assignments at my own pace. Then again, I don’t like taking it fully online because we don’t have a professor showing us step by step on certain things, on the bright side there are many tutors in the library. My English class, as you all know, is a hybrid class. It is half online and the other half in class. I really enjoy this hybrid English class because we are given assignments online and we are still able to ask questions and get feed back face to face. My Management Food Preparation class is probably my most tiring class. This class is for my major, Culinary Arts. It is a 6hour lab day, from 7 or 7:30a.m. -2p.m., and another day is a 2hour lecture class.  Since I live in Santa Paula, I have to wake up at 6 and leave a little after to make it to class on time. Even though I dread waking up this early very Tuesday, I still force myself to, mainly because I have to, but also keeping in mind that this will all be worth it in the end.

One of my biggest motivators is my family. My dream is to eventually open up my own bakery, so they are always giving me ideas of how I should decorate and also the new recipes I should try, because of this it makes me want a bakery so much more and it keeps me focused on what I really want in the future. I do get discouraged thinking of how long it will take me to make my dream bakery come to life, but my family always gives me motivational words and tells me I can do it. With that said, I do feel too tired to deal with school and work, but knowing that my biggest future goal will come true with all my hard work, will make it all worth it in the end.

Scripted Reality

Reality shows have taken over the television. Drama, cooking, love, life, forensic, and other reality televisions fill television channels. Although there are very few I enjoy watching, such as, ‘The Little Couple.’ This show is one of my favorites, because it shows a beautiful love between the couple, and their journey on adopting their two precious children. This show is definitely worth watching compared to other drama based reality TV shows. Don’t get me wrong, there are a good handful of reality shows that I love watching, but other shows are just a waist of space on channels.  Television shows have changed a lot. Many shows on MTV are reality shows revolving around other people’s drama. Then again I’m not into drama to begin with, so I don’t have the satisfaction of watching other peoples.

Romantic based reality television shows are secretly my guilty pleasure. I do get annoyed with other drama related television shows but some shows like, ‘The Bachelor,’ are shows I enjoy. Television shows like these don’t involve people cussing at each other or girls pulling each other’s hair. All the yelling in those shows annoys me. I used to enjoy watching, ‘Teen Mom,’ because I was always interested on how teens would be moms, but later once their relationship drama, and how some of them do not change their bad habits for their baby, started to upset me. I felt like some moms should not be allowed to be TV famous.

Reality Television shows in my opinion can be both, harmful and beneficial to society. Harmful, because many teenagers watch drama filled reality shows and they get so caught up in it and begin to think that the bad behavior showed on these shows is okay. Beneficial, because some of these television shows give good life points to live by, and are actually helpful for our own reality. Also for some shows like, ’19 Kids and Counting,’ I find it interesting to watch because it’s so cool to see how such a huge family lives on a day-to-day basis.

Overall, I understand reality TV shows can be really tempting to watch, to get a glimpse on how others live. Then again there are a good handful of people on these shows that love drama and bring it to the show and do not make them enjoyable to watch. Trying to think of all the reality TV shows, it is crazy to think that so many channels are filled with these shows. It is crazier to think that people really enjoy watching the drama and yelling going on in these shows. As much as I hate to admit sometimes I do get ragged in to watching the drama reality TV shows, one was ‘Jersey Shore.’ All the craziness going on in these shows made me avoid watching it. My cousin slowly got me into watching it, it is not a show I kept up with, but its crazy how these shows catch our attention one way or another. As much as some of us hate to admit, these shows can be pointless to watch but sometimes you can’t help but watch a few minutes of it.

Clique

As we grow up we start to mature and our views on certain things begin to change. When I was in high school, it seemed as though popularity was the most important thing. Now that I’m out of high school, it is not important what so ever. I was always afraid I wouldn’t fit in or doing something would eliminate my chances from ever being “cool.” I was never part of the “popular group,” so it did keep me out of the spot light, but I did always wonder how it would feel to be on the inside of the popularity clique.

Now that I am older, my opinion on being popular has changed so much. Thinking back, I wonder why it was such a big deal for so many people, at one point including myself. Almost all the people we went to school with move on with their lives and hardly anyone is remembered for being popular in high school. Honestly, I feel like a few of the popular people from my high school days were mean. They would make people feel bad about themselves only to make them feel better. Don’t get me wrong there were some people that were super nice, but it seemed as though popularity changed some other people.

Thinking back at it, I’m happy that I never became one of them because I always stayed myself and never changed into someone I wasn’t and never belittled someone to make them feel terrible. I’m glad my main focus was school and although I wanted to be a part of the popularity clique, being who I was then got me to where I am today. The thought of knowing that I was always nice to people in high school, even if they were mean or nice to me doesn’t leave me feeling any guilt. In the end of high school, all that matters is Graduating, the great memories, and the people that truly were my friends from the start.