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Rollercoaster

No, not a rollercoaster at a fair; an economic rollercoaster. More and more over the past couple of months, my parents have told me that we are in a bad economic state. I have never really realized how bad off our economy is until going to Target the other day. I looked down practically every aisle and saw lots of little red and yellow tags littering the shelves. They read: “Price Cut” and “Sale” for even the most basic items- food, groceries, water. Then it really struck home with me. Filling up at the pump is another thing I have noticed get more and more expensive. A couple months ago gas was around $3.10 a gallon; now prices are raised to $3.50, even $3.60 or higher at some places.
Then I thought about it: The higher gas is, the more expensive it is for the trucks to get to the places they are going and unloading there goods. Therefore, stores are not making as much money as they used to be able to support what it takes to run things. Although I also know that a recession eventually means things will go back up, that does not mean anytime in the immediate near future. We need to be more vigilant and controlled in our spending hoping that interest rates will rise soon and we can move back to our previous state and means of living.

Finding Flow

Pleasure versus enjoyment… What is the difference in these two emotions? Pleasure is defined as the positive feeling when we take part in the simplest requirements for survival, according to Csikszentimihalyi. Enjoyment, on the other hand, is the exhilaration we feel when we go above and beyond those certain requirements. Although pleasure gives us motivation, it does not produce change. It makes us yearn for what gives us comfort and relaxation. Motivation, conversely, provides us with a craving for material possessions that suit our needs.
Why has society turned to material possessions for an enhanced quality of life? It is the mere scarcity and perceived value that turns consumers on to this popular trend. Also the tangibility of material possessions makes them seem more authentic and bona fide than having abstract and meaningful goals in life. People do not realize that these material possessions will only provide them with temporary satisfaction. Basically, the exhilarating emotion they provide at first will only be transitory. This leads to a vicious cycle of buying more and more products to comfort us and soothe our anxiety.
It is okay for material possessions to give us pleasure, but when it is the only thing that can make one happy, we face a serious dilemma. Sure a new car can make us happy but when we need a new car to fulfill an empty and bottomless desire we have inside is when we need to find a deeper meaning and reason for living. Material possessions become a “drug” for some people, providing a quick fix for their craving which eventually leads them to becoming burnt out and worse off than they were in the first place.
Instead, people need goals that build character and make life worthwhile. There are plenty of meaningful and enriching activities that encourage future positive goals as well. We need to nourish and care for ourselves and provide us with satisfaction that is lasting instead of fleeting.
Instant gratification cannot come soon enough for people in today’s society. Having rewards delayed makes things so much more worthwhile for people. Although a long term goal may take more intellect and hard work, it reaps more benefits and gratification in the long run.
Csikszentimihalyi, a clinical research psychologist, has spent decades researching flow, or the mental state in which a person is fully immersed in the activity that he or she is focusing on. When experiencing flow, people obtain a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in such activities.

Illegal Legal Drugs

I have always known that drugs are illegal, but since coming to college I have become more aware of legal drugs that are being used illegally. People use prescription drugs to “heighten” or intensify the effects of alcohol or marijuana. Prescriptions painkillers and anti-anxiety medicines, when combined with alcohol, give people a more intense buzz. Even a late night at the library for some people can be stimulated by Adderall, which is used to treat ADHD. People think that “borrowing” these medications is okay, when really it is more harmful to them and their bodies than they think. Most people think that these drugs are safer than street drugs because they are used for sanctioned medical use when taken correctly. This is not the case. When people take painkillers, tranquilizers, or stimulants, they are risking a lot. More and more young people are being treated for this kind of substance abuse.
Why are so many people affected by this growing epidemic? Doctors prescribe our society with more drugs than we know what to do with. I know I can look in my mom’s medicine cabinet and find Hydrocodone from when I got my wisdom teeth out and many other prescriptions that I don’t even know for what they were prescribed. There are a lot of stresses in our world, and people turn to taking the edge off with pills such as Xanax or Valium. Obviously people like the feel-good and calming effects of these drugs, but long term they pose serious side effects- depressed respiration, irregular heartbeat, even cardiovascular failure and death. (Heath Ledger just died from mixing too many prescription drugs.)

Purchasing Power... Can Money really buy LASTING happiness?

In high school, the one mistake my parents made was to giving me my own credit card. If I had nothing to do, I would go to the mall out of pure boredom. Going shopping was an escape for me. Each time I bought something I experienced a sort of high that kept me going. Eventually, this habit got a bit out of hand and my parents revoked the priviledge I abused. Now that I am in college and on a budget, I am actually (surprisingly) more happy. I have found friends I love to hang out with, and I really do enjoy my studies. I rarely find myself bored and having to go to the mall for a quick fix. I fill my free time with either studying or other relaxing activities that are satisfying. Although sometimes I wish I could go to the mall for a quick spree, I realize that it will only bring me down. While I realized I was happy in high school with the ultimate purchasing power, I now see that it was a just fleeting feeling that didn’t last. Has anyone else had an experience like this they can relate to or offer me any insight?

Letting Life Pass You By...

I know February is almost over, but I am still thinking about the New Year’s resolutions I never came up with and the lent I never made. I think the reason I can never fulfill these promises because they are events that our society places so much emphasis on. Instead I take on each day as it comes. I am able to find flow in my own life by taking charge. I can let life pass me by, or I can take advantage and live it to the fullest possible extent. If not, it will be controlled by someone else to serve another purpose that is not ours. Some people in our world manipulate our flow to better benefit theirs. They will use us for their own personal agenda without even thinking about us. Living is more than just biological survival; we have to get more out of life than just simply following the necessary steps to the grave. We have to ask ourselves, “what makes life worthwhile and worth living?”
Experiences are what make our lives worthwhile. We have to develop ourselves as individuals and not get caught up in the meaningless stuff that distracts us. We have to break free and make our own choices of what we want to do and who we want to be. Each day I have a new and fresh outlook on even the smallest daily activities and how they affect me as a whole. My schedule during the week has become a routine. Every once in a while I should mix it up and see how it affects my moods and emotions, and ultimately me as a person.

Do grades actually reflect how much you learn?

Blog: The Art of Learning
http://ppieceofmind.blogspot.com/
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America's Soliders

After looking at Army of Dude's blog, I am filled with both a feeling of sentiment and respect for the soldiers overseas. I do not think that they get enough credit for the work they do. The picture he has posted on his blog are that not only of great photography, but they actually pull the reader/ viewer into his world. These pictures are not ones you see in the papers caught on film by an outsider looking in, but those of an actual soldier that lives his life this way. Each day these soldiers are filled with both courage and fear of what is to come, risking their lives for their fellow American citizens, most of which they do not actually know. War is depicted by movies, television specials, and books, but none of us civilians really actually know what it is like to live in a world filled with terror. America mostly fights all it's wars overseas with the exception of a couple of terrorist attacks over the past couple of years. Those days instated a great amount of suffering and loss- a loss that the people of the Middle East have to face everyday. I could not ever imaging living in that kind of world. Having the freedom that America has does not come easy. We have these great soldiers to thank for risking our lives so we can live ours without punishment and persecution.

When blogging was first introduced as a way of writing in our English class, I was shocked. Blogging was a totally new and different way of writing for me; what would I write about? I was used to formal papers, even journal entries covering the books we read, but not blogs. I always thought of blogs as the Emo Rants people who took pictures of themselves in the mirror wrote on Xanga in Middle School. But, after writing my first couple blogs, I soon realized that they were not like this at all; you could blog about a wide variety of topics. Some of the blogs our English class looked at were written on some very serious subjects, but there were also several relating to current events or even more relaxed subjects such as celebrities, gossip, or events happening around campus. As a result of these blogs, I was more in tune to the news and even checked top news stories on the television or online. I started to pay more attention to what was going on around me both at SMU, in Dallas, around the country, or around the world. It forced me to see things more critically, and made me put more effort and research into specific issues. At first, it was hard for me to think about what to write about, but after awhile it got easier. Sometimes it was easier to just write a summary of the events that happened, but then I realized that you had to give your opinions or raise questions that people could respond to.

Usually when I write papers, my main audience is an older, mature English teacher. What is nice about blogging is that your target audience can be people of any age. You can receive opinions, comparisons, judgements, and suggestions from all different people which helps you to critique your own work in a new light you would not normally if you were writing a paper in an English class enviroment. I realized that if you wanted an older, more mature audience to focus their attention on your blog, then you have to use correct grammar and style as opposed to a more juvenile age group that you could talk about subjects with less gravity. Another important rule of blogging is to present yourself and what you have to say well or else people will not take it seriously. If you talk about how Britney Spears’ new haircut really, deeply affected you, people probably think you are a very shallow person and do not take things with much thought. Right! On the other hand, if you talk about more current issues that are seen on the news or current events, people will probably have more respect for you and your opinions.