Here we go again. It seems that everytime a new year begins, everyone tries to change themself in one way or another. This year, I want to become more knowledgable on everything. The standard is high, but the task is not too hard to accomplish.
Now, at first glance, even I am thinking there is no way to accomplish this resolution. When I say everything, I am really referring to becoming a more well-rounded individual who can talk on a subject without having to make stuff up. It seems the more someone tries to convince themself they know something, the less they actually know.
For instance, the presidential campaign of 2008. I knew straight up that Barack Obama was my guy. I was newly 18 and very thrilled to vote for the first time. I felt like a true American.
However, one night, while discussing the campaign with my mom, she asked my why I liked Barack. It was hard to come up with an answer. I had never thought about it. I knew what the issues were, and I knew what side I was taking on them, but I had never stopped to figure out what position Obama was on the same issues.
Society has taken a position where, as my Communications instructor Robert Walsh would put it, "we look down on people who are intelligent. Since when is it a bad thing to be smart. I find that ridiculous!" This is true! As people, we are all guilty of trying to act smart, but in reality, we are no smarter than the kindergarten students sitting in our classrooms.
I worked at a daycare and on November 4, after I had finished voting, I had to go to work. I had a van full of kids who were all telling me how excited they were to vote for the first time too. I asked them who they voted for, and all but three kids cheered out McCain. John McCain had won the election at Jefferson Elementary School. That is when the kids began to tell me about the issues and how McCain was going to fix our country.
I was shocked! At this moment, I made the deal with myself that I would become more informed. Since then, I have been consistently visiting sites such as CNN and New Yorks Times to keep up on the information circulating around us. Even trips to the Internet Movie Database can help; it may be entertainment news, but it's news.
Okay, well I guess I will finish it up now. I was thinking a blog would be so hard to write, but this was relatively easy. I am really looking forward to the semester with my class, and hope to learn alot about all of you!
Until next time....
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