Reflection of the Senior Year

If you had asked me a year ago about what I thought of senoir year, I would have told you it was going to be a breeze, that I was going to be able to kick back and relax because I was officially done. But if you had asked me yesterday what I thought about senoir year I would have responded with one word: stressful. I feel as if this emotion has ecompased my senior year and has not let up since the day school started. It hasn't been a terrible year, but it has been full of work and challenges that I would have never expected a year ago. But I know I'm not the only one who feels the stress of this year. Though it's hard to admit, I know everyone is sitting in the exact same boat. We all want to get out of high school and move on. Some will move on to college and others will move onto jobs. The feeling is mutual though and everyone is just trying to find a way out of high school.

While I have felt the pressures of this year I have also been able to look at the positive aspects and respect them too. If someone had told me I would be on Homecoming Court my senior year, I would have laughed. I wouldn't even consider myself princess material, yet somehow I made it onto the Homecoming Court. People would ask me if I wanted to win and I would just respond with "I'm thankful just to be on the Court itself, winning would just be an added bonus." This year's Homecoming by far was my favorite due to the fact that I was surprisingly stress free for the day and wasn't worrying about things like college applications or homework that needed to be completed. I just went out and had a good time, something that I haven't been able to do much at all since this year began.

I've learned that I can get into college. It sounds silly that I would say that, but I constantly was doubting my chances of being accepted to one. I was under the impression that if you come from Fairfax County and you're applying in state than you shouldn't even count on receiving an acceptance letter. "It's a very competitive environment and your GPA may not be high enough" Ms. Connelly said when my parents and I talked to her about colleges back in April of last year. Though it was a simple remark, it scared me to death and that's when the doubts started. They've slowly stopped though. I've been accepted to two of the colleges I've applied for which are Southern Utah University and UNC Greensboro. I'm still waiting for three other responses but I'm okay now. Seeing that I can get into college has really helped boost my confidence.
Hopefully the rest of this year will turn out to be a good end to a challenging year. I don't want to continue to struggle the way I have for the first half of the year. I want to be able to look back on my senoir year and see the positive aspects and take the challenges as a learning experience. I'm not alone and being able to talk to people is just a blessing in itself. I've noticed that people have had a leap in maturity and even though we might not all be friends, we come to respect one another and appreciate each others strengths and weaknesses. That has been a guiding light for me so far and I continue to see it as a reminder that I can get through this year.

Green Evolution May Be a Sour Start Towards a Better Planet

http://www.uclick.com/client/nyt/gm/
Going Green: Will it help or hinder us? Recently, the Chevrolet Volt was voted the 2011 Green Car of the Year. "The Chevy Volt is one of the first American-made electric cars to make its way onto consumer radar in quite some time. While the Toyota Prius hybrid has been dominating the Eco market with Honda Civic riding its coattails, the Chevy Volt is approaching things in a slightly different way technologically." Mark Perlman of technobuffulo.com says. The Chevy Volt may be the first American made electric car, but there are still some issues to be worked out with regards to the definition of "Green" and what it will do for this world.

Glenn McCoy of the New York Times illustrates the idea of Green Movement and how it has negatively effected us. In the cartoon, Obama is dressed as the infamous fairy godmother and has granted Cinderella's wish of going to the Ball by turning her carriage into a "Pumpkin". "Great! The Green car you sold me turned into a giant lemon!" Cinderella is yelling at Obama and is giving him grief for the lack of quality in the Green Car or the Chevy Volt. In most of Glenn's McCoy's cartoons, he does not seem to favor Obama tactics and strategies, but this common factor makes it clear that McCoy believes that Obama does not do a good job of keeping his promises. The reason why Obama is dressed as the Fairy Godmother is because in the story of Cinderella, the Fairy Godmother keeps her promises and tells Cinderella that all her dreams and wishes will come to fruition if she goes to the Ball. She cannot simply walk to the Ball so she relies on her Fairy Godmother to give her a good source of transportation. In comparison, many Americans look to people like Obama to give them guidance as to what is the best way to get from point A to point B without using up a plethora of gas or having the car break down due to faulty technology.
McCoy is smart to use the story of Cinderella because everyone is familiar with the outcome. But what if the outcome changed due to terrible advice given by a "wise" Fairy Godmother"? Through this cartoon, McCoy emphasizes that Obama has pushed for Americans to accept the Green ideas and concepts like the Chevy Vault, yet we do not have enough information to prove "going Green" will be affective or helpful to the planet's current state. McCoy uses the strategies like satire and allusion to show that this plan to move towards a greener planet may not have a positive outcome unlike the story of Cinderellla. While the Chevy Vault is a great idea on America's part, it still has some issues that need to be worked out. For example, the battery life. Just like your regular fuel injected engines, the battery in Green mobiles will not last forever and it will need to be replaced more frequently which means more dead batteries will end up in the landfills.
Again, some of the ideas pertaining to the Green movement are great. Recycling is a proven way to maintain the planet without harmful effects. But we still don't know enough about the Green cars to prove that they will help this planet. Hopefully, Obama will see that he needs to back down on the Green plan and focus on bigger issues like the economy and the Jobs Plan.

Answer to Question #5

If it were up to me, Ron Paul would be the GOP nomination. But it's not up to me and based on the debates, campaigns and the outcome of the Iowa caucus, Mitt Romney seems to be the reasonable nominee. One of the reasons why Romney is a potential nominee is because he hasn't done anything wrong. Unlike his competitors, he has clean image that hasn't been tainted by the media or by the other candidates. For example, Romney is in a monogamous marriage, he has strong core values and he has made it clear that his faith of Mormonism will not interfere with his decision making. With all these factors, it's easy to see that Romney could be the face of American and represent it well.

Another reason why Romney could be a potential nominee is because of his ideas and beliefs. Even though Herman Cain is no longer in the race, his values were that of an extremist. Most Americans don't classify themselves as extremists and they would feel more comfortable with Romney's views than they would with Cain's. Romney is the typical Republican in which he does not believe in gay marriage or abortion. Americans may not agree with all of his views but they know what to expect with him and they don't want to be left guessing whether or not he is going to do something else as president.

Romney has not only shown himself to be a responsible candidate but also he is reliable. Unlike Perry, Romney has done a good job of showing up to the debates and preforming in a mature manner. When he goes to the debates, it shows that he is dedicated and wants to promote his campaign and ideas. People want someone who can be trusted and if Romney continues to attend the debates, than he has a better chance of winning.

Overall, Romney has proved himself to be a strong candidate and it would not surprise me if he wins the nomination. He would pose quite the challenge for Obama making for a more entertaining race in November.

Candidates Are Quick to Move to the Next Best State: New Hampshire

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15654769/ns/politics-political_cartoons/t/week-political-cartoons/

The GOP candidates spend several months trying desperately to promote their campaign and image by visiting states they know will help them advance in the race as a front runner for the GOP nomination. Iowa evidently begins the process with the caucus in January. For a year, Iowa receives massive media coverage right up until the caucus is over and then the candidates quickly make their way over to New Hampshire in order to promote their campaign. In Daryl Cagle's political cartoon, he shows how the media rapidly travels from one state to another, meaning the states become yesterday's news once the race is over.

In Cagle's cartoon, both Iowa and and New Hampshire stand on separate sides because, not only are they not adjacent physically, but they also differ in politics too. While the Iowa is a conservative state, New Hampshire tends to be full of liberals and is very democratic. Thus, the opposite ends represent "The Far Right" and "The Far Left". The media is literally running from one end to the other because, not only is it a race for the candidates, but it is also a race for the media. It is their job to make sure that they covering every part of this race and picking up as much information as possible. Some of the techniques that Cagle uses is Personification of the states. In the cartoon, the viewer can see that the state of Iowa has the expression of frustration because the media is no longer covering them. The state of New Hampshire on the other hand is satisfied with the media and is prepared for the immense amount of coverage they are about to receive. Cagle also uses Exaggeration, portraying how the news reporters and journalists can be extremely obnoxious and almost desperate to get to the next state.

Both techniques emphasize that the media is overwhelming and could very well be playing too big of a role in how the caucuses and primaries are conducted. Cagle seems to believe that even though media coverage is important, the states have to deal with too much chaos and uproar causing them to resent the media all together. This is a big issue for states like Iowa and New Hampshire and it places emphasis on the fact that no one has done anything about the problem. The candidates have not taken it upon themselves to equally visit every state which may be why voter turnout is so low. Cagle probably supports the fact that there's too much media coverage and the focus needs to be placed on different state other than the main ones. Even though there have been ideas proposed to change how the primaries and caucuses are conducted, currently they determined by two factors: the candidates and the over bearing media.