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.

Favorite Christmas Memory

"Mommy...Daddy...it's Christmas." I slowly walk over to my mom's side of the bed to shake her awake. "C'mon Mommy, we have to go open presents." I whisper. "Elizabeth, it's 5:30 am, can you go back to bed please for another, oh I don't know, two hours?" My mom says groggily. As a stubborn four year old, I didn't take to this question well and I needed a way to convince my parents that we needed to get up now instead of eight. "Mommy, let's get up, it's Chwist-mas!" My three year old sister comes sprinting into my parent's bedroom, her hair standing up in back. She takes a running start and leaps onto the bed, landing on my dad's legs. "What the-- Caroline!" my dad yells out in pain, trying to push my sister off. He began to mumble words, that at the time, did not mean anything to me and weren't seen as offensive at all. "Caroline and Elizabeth go back to bed now or I'm canceling Christmas." my mom yelled suddenly grabbing our attention. When my mom yells, you know that she means business and the idea of canceling Christmas was not even an option. Caroline and I started to walk back to our bedroom but before we could get there my four month old brother woke up screaming and crying.

We all made our way to Collin's room. "Caroline and Elizabeth go to your room now!" My dad said as he started to push us towards our room. "Does this mean Christmas is cancelled?" I asked, on the verge of crying. I knew my dad wouldn't be able to resist "the face." He looked at me for a moment and contemplated closing the door. "No Elizabeth." He said smiling "Come here." We all walked to Collin's room where my mom was trying to get him back to sleep by holding and rocking him. I sat on the floor quietly while Caroline went over to the book shelf to to grab Twas the Night Before Christmas. She opened the book and I could hear her trying to sound out the words. My dad sat down next to her and put in his lap, trying to help her read the book. I walked over and sat down next to him, looking at the pictures and listening to Caroline's attempts to read. As we kept reading, Collin stopped crying and my mom actually pulled out a couple of other Christmas books and we read those.

We ended up falling back asleep on my brother's floor until 8:30 a.m. He woke up first, but ready to actually get up this time. This might seem like a strange Christmas memory but it's my favorite because we created traditions that. Whether my parents like to admit it or not, they always looked forward to us waking up early and running into their room. For a while, we read Christmas stories before opening presents. Now that we're teenagers, we don't wake up at the crack of dawn but we still enjoy sitting in each other's rooms talking about these memories before we go downstairs.

Bush = Broken Promises

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

Too often, politicians and congressmen make promises that they can't or don't intend to follow through on. With these promises, they offer a temporary solution to a long term problem. One of the problems this country has faced for the past ten years is the war on terrorism. Bush assumed office in 2000 and soon had to deal with the crisis of 9/11. In response to the attacks Bush sent troops over to the Middle East in order to prevent any future attacks from coming to fruition. Constantly, Bush kept saying how he would take the troops out of Iraq and Iran by Christmas or in a year of the last promise. Finally after ten years, all troops in Iraq will be home for Christmas this year, something Obama said he would be able to do during his presidency.

In Adam Zygus's cartoon, Bush is in the background standing behind a podium saying "Major Combat Operations in Iraq have ended." I huge pencil is drawn next to the speaking bubble, dotting the period at the end of Bush's statement. On the side of the pencil the date "Dec. 15, 2011" is displayed. Bush's statement is supposed to represent all the false promises he made and what he was not able to accomplish during his time in office. Bush is also wearing an air suit that indicates he's been over to Iraq, meaning he should have obtained an update on the troops. This represents that Bush just wanted to appeal to the public when in fact he knew that the troops were not going to be coming home. In the bubble the date "May 1, 2003" is written and is used as a contrast between the date Dec. 15, 2011. This shows that it took eight years in order for the operations in Iraq to end instead of three years.

One of the techniques that Zygus uses is his placement of certain features in the cartoon. He places Bush in the background emphasizing the fact that Bush's remarks are part of the past, that he is no longer president. There's also a clear contrast between dates meaning that both are significantly different. May 3 is in the springtime heading towards summer, which for most families, is a time where they'll be taking vacations together. December 15 is ten days before Christmas, another event where families will be spending time together. Many of the people serving in the military are a part of these families and due to the fact that time kept elapsing, they didn't get to see them. Zygus also uses an actual quote which is supposed to make people think about the flaws that Bush had in his presidency. Bush would give information to the public that he thought they wanted to hear, not the information that they needed to hear.

For many years, we struggled with taking the troops out of the Middle East and finally we've been able to get them out of Iraq. Obama has made it possible for this to happen and that's a huge contrast between him and Bush. This cartoon deals with the issue of the amount of time the troops have spent over in Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. While Americans would like to protect themselves from terrorists, they also need to think about those who are currently defending. Zygus seems to support that the troops need to be taken out of the Middle East because of Obama's presidency. Zygus could be a liberal due to the fact that they do not believe that America should be using violence as a means to fight terrorism. But the main message is not about the troops but about the lies that Americans have heard repeatedly about the war over in Iraq. Bush did not handle the war well and it is reflected in Zygus's cartoon. By emphasizing the past and present conditions of the war, Zygus is able to help Americans see what a difference eight years makes and how much more information we've obtained about the war.

Answer to Question of the Week #3

Obama's presidency has been interesting to watch for the past three years. He came into office as a man with little experience in contrast to his opponent, John McCain. People have been able to see changes like the Health Care Bill or the Jobs Plan. Still, Obama's approval remains split. While 42% of Americans believe Obama has a decent Jobs Plan, 51% don't. There's no clear majority here, so it shows that Obama is not completely out of favor or in favor. It just means that it will be hard to predict whether or not he will win the presidency this year.
Back in September 2011, Gallup took a poll pertaining to how Obama has done compared to Bush. More Americans were inclined to say that Obama is better (43%) rather than worse (34%) and 22% seeing know difference between Bush and Obama. But compared to Bill Clinton, who, like Obama, is a Democrat, few people think that Obama has done better (12%) than Clinton. Unlike Obama, Clinton came into office with a lot more experience, knowing what policies he wanted to implement. Decisiveness is a key trait as a leader and Obama's approval ratings have dropped in those respects. In March 2011, Gallup's poll displayed Americans' view of Obama as a strong leader had dropped by 7% from April 2009. Overall, between understanding American's problems and sharing their values, Obama is at 21% decline.
As far as parties go, Obama is particularly popular with the Democratic party and only partially with the Republican party. 83% of Democrats feel Obama shares their values while a mere 18% of Republicans do. Surprisingly, Obama is split with Independents. 47% of Independents feel Obama shares their values which is slightly under 50%. If these polls are correct, Obama will probably be relying on the Democrats and Independents this year to reelect him as president.
It's hard to say at this point whether or not Obama has a strong chance of being reelected as president. Unfortunately over the past year, Obama's personality traits have trended downward meaning he is not connecting with the public. As president, the goal is to lead while still staying on base with Americans and that shouldn't be a huge task for Obama. This next year will test Obama to see whether or not he can raise ratings in the polls and be reelected to represent America once again.