Frustrated

It would only make sense to me that if a student had not completed a "task" that was necessary, or required, for graduation that someone from the administration would in form the student of what they need to do. Send a letter, make a phone call, something. Especially if that particular student had recently moved in from out of town. Granted it is a majority of the students responsibility to take requirements for graduation in their own hands, to be proactive, however if it was solely up to the students then there would be no need for any type of administrative staff. I am a senior this year, and it has been almost a year since I moved here after Christmas of last year. Since while i lived in Florida I had completed all of my graduation requirements, I assumed that everything was ready to go, I mean no one had told me otherwise, in fact I was told that I had completed more than the necessary classes for graduation. Spring of last year I took the graduation test here at Jones County High School, and was not informed that there was a writing portion of the test. Had the student information center not been on the way to my locker yesterday after 8th period economics, I would not have stopped to look at it, so I would not have known that my name was on the testing list for writing. Being a senior this year and only having to two classes that I am required to take (AP Government and Economics) plus my desire to take College English 1101-1102, and AP Statistics, I am left with about half a day that I don't have any classes on my schedule. So I decided to join the work based learning program at school, I work in the morning, and go to school in the afternoon. Had I not shown up to my testing site they would have called my name on the intercom, but since I don't have class in the morning I still would not have known about this test. Granted there is a make-up testing date, however if no one thought to inform me that my name was on the list for the first round, would they really think to inform me that my name was on the make-up list. And if the had not thought to, what would they say on graduation night when I am getting ready to walk across the stage and accept my diploma, "We are sorry, but you can't graduate since you never completed the writing portion of the graduation test" Extreme frustration.

Just got finished leaving my comments.

I had an extremly relaxed weekend, finally. We needed a little family time, and I hadn't done laundry in two weeks. This weekend gave me the perfect opportunity to accomplish the above tasks as well as catch up on some greatly missed tv shows. Not totally ready for school to start back tomorrow, but then again who is. Giving charlee a bath (my dog), then catching up on some reading. That's it for now. (:

Example Essay Rough Draft [1]... Still with out a title (:

We met in the 540 A Publix (aka The Baby Publix). His name, Cup, Reece’s Cup. I was with my mom doing our biweekly, Sunday afternoon, grocery run when we made eye contact. Maybe it was his shinny orange packaging, or perhaps it was his pasty peanut butter heart. Caught up in his rich dark chocolaty skin, I begged my mom to let him join us after dinner. Of course I didn’t realize it then, but now it is completely clear to me, I was tricked. The owners of the Publix Corporation, or possibly Reece’s, used me to get to my moms check book.

That Reece’s Cup was put there on purpose, with unflawed logic behind its exact placement. Sure, my mom walked past them without being sucked into the rabbit hole of Skittles, Twizlers, and M&M’s, but it all rested on my direct level of eye sight. There is no way, that at seven years old, I would have been able to pass by a Reece’s Cup.
So I wonder, are people subject to all of the tricks up the corporations sleeve’s, or rather are we the basis of their selling techniques.

Think about it, in every grocery store candy is always in the check out line. Why? Mothers who bring there children into the store can not avoid the register, but it expands even farther than that. The actual candy is placed on the bottom half of those shelves, to be absolutely sure that children notice it, with gum and magazines at the top. But not just any magazine, mainly the weight loss magazines, or those with headlines such as “Brittany Still Fat after the Baby”. Ironic that they are positioned directly above American’s largest temptation, sugar? Not at all, simply genius.

Walking into the dim lit split doorway of a Hollister or Abercrombie is a little different than that of most department stores. A mixture of darkness, sweet scents of perfume, and overbearing fake plants create an atmosphere of relaxation. An atmosphere that makes you want to take your time to glance around at everything. One that makes you look a little harder at things you normally wouldn’t, because the dark lighting makes it slightly more difficult to focus your eyes. The spot lights are always rested on the most expensive items in the store, but they are the items that many would give into the price in order to receive the satisfaction of “trendy” clothes. The loud, upbeat choice of rock music that bounces past the perimeter of the store makes one excited, and often forget about how much they really are paying for a paper thin blouse.

It is because of all of the above statements that once we enter the store, we can no longer think clearly, and that we are distracted from truly analyzing the signs that read, “Buy two get, one free!” We get so caught up in the “sales” that we cease to realize that the regular price has increased from $15 to $21.99; so that we really are still paying for the “free” shirt. Only one who has a brick wall for a conscience could escape the temptations that lurk around every corner of the store; from the spot lit mannequin, with a god like aurora, propped at “center stage”, and the life size posters in the dressing rooms, to the faces on the bags and the pictures of Jake and Malaya on the human named cologne bottles. They all stare at you, sending the message that if you buy that top, you will look like the poster model, it’s a trick. A trick that is even performed, innocently, by Hollister’s employees, who are almost forced to spend half of their weeks pay check on their work dress code.

Sometimes what our eyes see, and what our ears hear is no further than skin deep, however our mind still believes it. Corporations are all about the money. All about tricking their audience into believing it’s a deal, and diminishing their customer’s ability to make rational decisions. Sales articles and commercials have convinced us that these companies actually care about the money we are saving in this economic downturn. Instead, it is a misdirection, a manipulation of a person’s emotions by using lights, signs, and colors, almost like magic.

Disappointment + Rain = Extra Sleep

The new season of Dancing with the Stars started to night exactly and hour ago. It is definitely on my top ten list of favorite TV shows. I was so excited when my calender reminder went of on my phone because I was going to get to watch the premier. Yeah, turns out we don't even get the channel it comes on. Aggravation. Joy of living in Gray, where we cant run cable where I live, we have satellite. Problem: storms. When it rains, sometimes even when its just a little cloudy, we tend to have a hard time receiving satellite signal. Apparently I was not meant to watch this show tonight. Silver lining... I'm laying in my bed listening to the rain, ill be out within the next ten minutes. (: Night.

Weekend Nights

Friday:

Macon Venue Project. When I walked in I immediately thought, LAME. Minus the band members Central City Skate Park held about thirty people, definitely not what I was expecting. Any other time I have gone to these shows they were packed. Even when I volunteered at them you had no room to move around, much less for people to actually skate. Despite the small crowd, it turned out to be a pretty entertaining show, to say the least.



Saturday:

Still had a pounding headache from Friday night, and I'm sure that the rainy weather didn't help much. So after dinner with the family, I headed to down town Milledgeville. Favorite leather jackets+ rainy weather + coffee shoppes = complete and total relaxation.

Love it or Hate it, We all have to use it: PUNCTUATION

DEAR JOHN:

I WANT A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT LOVE IS ALL ABOUT. YOU ARE GENEROUS, KIND, THOUGHTFUL. PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT LIKE YOU ADMIT TO BEING USELESS AND INFERIOR. YOU HAVE RUINED ME FOR OTHER MEN. I YEARN FOR YOU. I HAVE NO FEELINGS WHATSOEVER WHEN WE'RE APART. I CAN BE FOREVER HAPPY, WILL YOU LET ME BE YOURS?

GLORIA

Confused..

Sometimes I wanna tell you that you don't understand where I'm at right now, when really I'm the one who doesn't understand it but you do because you have been exactly where I'm at. Well pretty close at least. But when I vent to you and ask for a response you gotta remember I'm where you were when it didn't make sense to you so you gotta drop back a couple years when we talk. Instead of expecting me to completely understand and agree with you and be as mature about it as you are now. Because you weren't always like this. Sometimes I think you forget how old I actually am because you always thought I was more mature than other people my age. That may be true but not matter how much more mature I am than anyone I'm still a seventeen year old girl. My Point: when I vent remember how you felt and how you were when stuff was a little less than perfect in your life and remember that no one ever tells anywhere close to the good things in life compared to how much bad that they reveal. So even though I may complain a lot doesn't mean that I'm not thankful for all that I do have.

Rough Draft [2] Definitely still needs alot of work...

Peaking through the stain glass windows, the suns rays bounce off of every surface, making the room shine with magnificent, cheerful colors. I began to stir and as I opened my eyes the glare on the bear white cabin walls seemed to unfold like petals of a rose. The sound of my favorite church hymn crawled under my covers to my ears, but it wasn’t until I opened my eyes to see last years counselor singing into her hair brush that I realized I was back at camp. I sat up examining the carvings surrounding me on every beam of my bunk, like the stars surround the moon, waiting for an uncontrollable grin so I could say to myself “yeah, I remember that year.”

I wasn’t raised in a family that attended church regularly, but every summer I went to camp with a few friends. Every year I began my count down for the next year the day that camp ended. From the moment i arrived i were treated as family, which i was in the eyes of God. There were no awkward moments at camp, it was as if i had grown up with these people even though i had just learned there names standing in small group assignment line. Everyday consisted of the same basic events almost always in this order: worship, breakfast, prayer, worship, wreck, small groups, lunch, free time, rest hour, activities, workshops or seminars, worship, small group, dinner, chapel, fellowship, devotions, lights out. However everyday was completely different. Worship varied from one on one time seriously praising our creator; to jumping literally full of joy of all of the wonderful things he has given us. Meals were family style. You were assigned a table with one counselor and eight students from different areas, and the food was already on the table. Prayer was our quite time in the mornings, for about forty five minutes where we were given the time to walk away from every thing and everyone else to talk to Jesus one on one. Wreck and free time were times for group activities, mainly consisting of nine square competitions. Small group was a time to get into a group of peers and share the things that we struggled with most in our journey to live through The Lord. Activities were things such as a ropes course and other things that would help an individual to build their trust in each other and in Jesus. Workshops and seminars were exactly as they sounded, times where we gathered in rooms and learned of new ways that we could tell others of the word of Jesus Christ. But camp always seemed to have an emphasis on reuniting with old friends and having a good time rather than learning about our creator and committing to abide by his word.

Camp served as a private get away for me. A place to run to hide, and to think, camp was my home away from homes. The one place where in a single week I kept the whole world out, and only let one Person in. Somewhere where every night I floated into a dream world where everything and everyone who followed Christ was accepted, and every morning I could wake up and that dream was real. It was the only place that once the week was over I felt like a five year old grabbing onto there Fathers leg because they didn’t want to be sent to kindergarten, except my kindergarten was the “nations.” Camp was a place that as soon as the doors on the church bus came to a close at the end of the week, so did the part of my mind that let Him in.

This summer I couldn’t go to camp, my mom’s job transferred her to Georgia and trying to arrange a trip back to Florida for camp was just not in my budget. I was devastated, more so than the times I had to leave camp. However I didn’t seem to be upset that I wasn’t getting to spend a week worshiping Jesus, but that I was missing out on something that all of my old friends were experiencing. Little did I know at the time that I wasn’t going to miss the experience, just one that had previously served as a social activity.

I was invited to a camp closer and more affordable, but I had lost all of the excitement I once had for camp. It wasn’t going to be the same; nothing could ever be the same as the fellowship I experienced at my old camp. Going into this new camp I was nervous and judgmental, and ready to make up a list to send to my old friends back in Florida about how much better camp there was than this new one.

We loaded all of our suitcases onto the church bus, just like we would have at my old camp. But when we arrived we didn’t get cabin assignments, we stayed in beach houses. This was a new concept to me because the camp I had gone to for years was on a lake and you could see the neighboring camp grounds directly across the lake. But here it was just the ocean, you can’t see across the ocean. Meals were different; we ate together as a church and not with new people. This was a major difference a main focus of my old camp was to meet new people that share the same beliefs you do, but here we were expected to grow closer to the people in our own youth group. Worship, small groups, workshops and seminars, wreck and activities, and devotionals seemed to be the same or close to the way we did it at Warren Willis camp. (old camp)

But there was another key difference, at Warren Willis we were expected to gain a deeper relationship with God, here at Super Wow we were not only expected to gain this deeper relationship with Jesus, but to learn ways that we could keep this bond once we left camp and emerged back into the real world. We were told that it wouldn’t be easy, but we would make it because we had formed a support group by becoming close to the people in our own church. We were also taught ways that we could spread the word of Jesus. I had always noticed the sort of camp high feeling I got while I was at camp, and how it always seemed to wilt faster than it was formed, but it had never occurred to me before at camp that I was supposed to take what I learned and share it with all the nations of the world.

On the last day of this camp, I took a walk down the beach to watch the sunset over the Atlantic Ocean. As I was walking, watching the sunset I saw how He did it. I saw that His creation of the sun is a reflection of Him and how He asks us to live. The sun’s arms reach out and shine on every inch of the world just as His love does. Its light never burns out exactly like His love. And the sun comes back to us every morning, just like Jesus does even when we have sinned and don’t deserve it. In that moment, walking down the beach just as it turned to dusk; I was amazed by the amount of His love that glides across each beam of sunlight to touch all of the nations. I began to shiver as the waves gently crashed against my feet, and the cool summer breeze began to blow. But I was immediately warmed again by the melting away of the sky. Watching the sun sink into the ocean, and the sky change from blue to pink, purple, and orange, a new desire, and purpose in this life became clear to me, I wanted His light to shine through me to touch other people of this world. So I began to float away, away from this world of corruption, treachery, and fear, into a world which lives only for Him, a world that I will now continue to float forever.