Diving In

As I was thinking about a topic to post about today, I looked back at the pieces that we read during the week, "Save the Whales, Kill the Shrimp" and Jourdan Anderson's letter. I realized that we hadn't really discussed the racial implications involved in the piece; we were discussing the nuances of irony and sarcasm. This stray thought then whisked me away to a music video I have recently seen, "I'm Not Racist" by Joyner Lucas. I highly recommend watching it, but I do warn you that there is a lot of profanity laced throughout the song. The more important connection I received from the video was the strong message of disillusionment people carry today. If you choose not to watch the video, this is the premise: a Caucasian male sporting a Make America Great Again hat speaks with and African American male one-on-one, venting their feelings and insecurities. By the end of the video, they reconcile, and everything is well again in the world. Not so. Thi...

  Good grades aren't everything, right? The most important thing in life is to follow your dreams and make sure that you accomplish everything you set out to do. What's the point of school then? I take a ton of AP classes because all the colleges want me to, something my parents also seem to agree with. In addition, I've taken the ACT and SAT multiple in pursuit of some number that really doesn't mean anything to me at least. Heck, even if I wanted to be a neuroscientist or something like that, is it really important for me to take all these "prerequisite" and "advanced classes?" My counselor tells me, the few times that we meet, that I shouldn't overwork myself, but it's important that I take advanced classes. That it's important for me to be finished with the ACT and SAT before senior year, but make sure to have a lot of extracurriculars and time to just relax. I obviously have to listen to her because she knows what she's talk...