Drunk Driving Realities (SSR)

Car accidents are the leading cause of death for teens in the United States. The question is: are they getting killed because they drove the car or are they getting killed because the car hit them? Sure enough, the first one is correct. What if I was to also say that these teens were under the influence when they caused the accident?

In a recent article I found online, a school in Houston, TX gave a real visual of what it's like to be involved in a drunk driving accident. The students were brought out to the back of their school only to find their most well-known classmates (fake) dead in a head-on car accident. The police, ambulances, fire department, and the works were all there. The goal was to allow the students to see what it would be like if their fellow classmates were to be in a car accident due to driving under the influence. They then took the students to the trauma center of the local hospital and stayed the night; but this wasn't any classic slumber party. The students watched from a distance as person after person was brought into the hospital in need of surgery due to a car accident involving drunk drivers. I found this simulation/ realization to be very effective.

The amount of innocent people getting killed my drunk drivers is increasing at an exponential rate. To make it worse, teens now believe that it's okay for them to drive while under the influence of alcohol. According to the article, it is found "that 1 in 3 drivers will be involved in a drunk driving crash, whether victim or perpetrator, in their lifetime. On average someone is killed every 22 minutes in the United States in a drunk driving-related crash. And approximately 6,000 teens are killed in crashes each year, the leading cause of death for teens." There is enough problems with adults driving drunk, and there is too much at risk for teens to be doing the same.

I believe that the increasing numbers of people getting killed in drunk driving accidents is a sign that something needs to be done. There should be a requirement for all school districts to have to carry out a drunk driving awareness day in which students learn about the negative things they are capable of doing by just one mistake. The simulations similar to the one used in this article is very affective. Teens nowadays refuse to listen to adults ramble on about things that they find useless and irrelevant. But, put them in the actual situation and you will find that they realize this is a big problem and something needs to be done about it.

In the video, you can see some of the students faces as they are in the simulation and at the trauma center of the hospital and they are blown away. The problem we face today is teens don't think about the consequences anymore. The only thing that matters is how many beers my friend can chug without puking. The only thing that matters is why my ex tweeted song lyrics that imply something about me. The only thing that matters is the fact that my best friend hooked up with a random guy at a party because she thinks it's cool to do stuff like that. Our generation needs a reality check, desperately. This is what really matters: how many lives can be saved by preventing teens from making the wrong decision of drinking and driving. Everything that you do in your life is completely irrelevant to me until you bring in the risk of not only hurting yourself, but facing the possible situation of putting another person's life in danger because of your lazy mistake. Find someone to drive you home. Stay the night at whoever's house you're at. Call a taxi. Do anything but drive home drunk.

Robin Garza from the Shattered Dream program found in the article states that "if we can just save one child, then everything we have done is worth every minute of it." Instead of turning ourselves into a selfish society, let's think of the other lives that we can take away in just a matter of seconds because of one single mistake: drinking and driving. Look at the following photos and try to think about the lives lost because of drivers under the influence.

Are We Really That Important? (PB)

You are one person. Think of individual people. Martin Luther King changed society completely around and established everlasting equality, while impacting the lives of so many others. Isaac Newton defined the laws of gravity which is literally around us all day every day. Steve Jobs used technology and problems to create some of the most used phones and devices across the world to ever come into existence. These are only a few of the people who have metaphorically and physically changed the lives of so many others and influenced the way we live. But are we really that important?

We may seem like the majority when looking at the world, but travel beyond that and see where you stand. There's a solar system, filled with planets, stars, moons, and meteors. Our solar system (the Milky Way Galaxy) extends as far as 100,000 light years. And you're telling me that you matter? (No pun intended). But don't stop thinking there, we are only one of hundreds of billions of galaxies that each have their own solar system, filled with their own planets, stars, moons, and meteors. Add in a few light years of extra matter here and there and you've found yourself the big, bad, and gargantuan Observable Universe. 

In simple terms, the Observable Universe is a gigantic collection of galaxies and matter that we are able to see through our scientific technology, mainly highly advanced telescopes. Over many years of research and physics problems, it has been calculated that the size of this entity is 92 billion light years. And you're telling me that you matter?

The little white specles in the above picture are not just stars, those are complete galaxies! They have everything that our Milky Way Galaxy has and more. Looking at this perspective makes you wonder what is really out there and how different it is. What the most sinister part of this is, is the fact that we are only 100,000 light years out of 92 billion, we are only one Galaxy out of 100 billion, we are only one planet, we are only one person, and yet we think of ourselves as important? In these terms we can't be considered wasted space because we are so tiny that we don't even count as space.

But think about who found all these statistics out. Who researched the solar system from the beginning of our time? Who came up with the technology to be able to conceive a visual of 92 billion light years? Who contributed to making us into who we are today? Although it may be a crumb compared to the loaf of a universe, the people in our world have discovered every glitch and tick of this place we call home. Each one of us has impacted the life at least one other in some way, a select few of us have impacted so many as to the whole world. Scientifically, we mean nothing but a dot on a piece of paper, but within our home limits, we mean the world and a few more galaxies to many others. 

"You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world's problems at once but don't ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own."

-Michelle Obama

The Key to Happiness: Improvement (PB)

"I have a great respect for incremental improvement, and I've done that sort of thing in my life, but I've always been attracted to the more revolutionary changes. I don't know why. Because they're harder. They're much more stressful emotionally. And you usually go through a period where everybody tells you that you've completely failed."

-Steve Jobs

Simply, I am in love with improvement. The satisfaction it gives me. The accomplishment it gives me. The happiness it gives me. The drive it gives me to do more, to complete more. Improvement is like a drug, the more you do it, the more you want it.

I am one of the most stressed and negative people you will ever meet, yet I love improvement. Crazy, isn't it? How one can talk themselves down so much and never say they can do it, but they're able to do the exact thing they said they wouldn't. What is it? False motivation? Contradictory words to make you feel better when you do what you said you couldn't? Whatever it is, needs to stop.

Through determination and motivation, anything can be done; people say it all the time. Though many things are easier said than done. This is why I love improvement. To be able to physically see the amelioration and advancement of myself gives me some sort of adrenaline rush to keep on going.

Are you academically inclined? Think about how great it would be to get an A on your chemistry test that you have to take tomorrow. Sure, you may think it's stopping you from procrastinating but is it really motivating you to actually study? Now think about the fact that you did get an A on your chemistry test. How good do you feel? Happy, content, accomplished, satisfied, and you're ready to get that feeling again. That's why I love improvement.

Are you athletically inclined? Think about the game you have next week against your biggest rival. You know you should be training as hard as you can and you're searching for the motivation. You look at the plays you need to make, the streak of the other team, you think you have it, but it's not physically there. Now think about how great you felt about yourself running the winning touchdown last week, or scoring the final goal at the game. You felt powerful, successful, excited, and ready to do it again.

Improvement is that little bit of nostalgia that keeps me going. I thirst for it day in and day out. It gives me a reason to keep the wheels turning, to do better and succeed. Once I improve, I feel like the next time that comes around, I need to do better than I did before. I'll get the same great feeling that I did the first time, and also the satisfaction of knowing it was all me that was able to better myself than ever before. Improvement is something that we've all experienced at least once before, but we have never really thought how beneficial it is to our lives and our well-being.

Next time when you're down in the dust, you think you will fail no matter how hard you try, and there's no point in doing anything anymore, think about improvement. You see how much you can accomplish just knowing that you've done it before. Challenge yourself and test your limits, the road is a never-ending journey that only takes you further. Have the confidence and get to your goal, and then some. You can never take away the improvement you've made. All you can ever do is add to it.

An Indifferent Society (CRR)

Think about this definition. Look at the synonyms. Analyze what you do everyday and how you can relate to this one, small adjective. You soon will realize indifference is everywhere and in everything. It seems that there is no escaping the wrath kid uninterested, nonchalant, uninvolved, indifferent people. I'm not the first to notice it either. 

We recently analyzed "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau in class, and the whole period of time I used to read this essay all I could think of was the speech Elie Wiesel gave that we first analyzed at the beginning of the year titled "The Perils of Indifference". Both of these compositions have been some of the best known in society today. To say that indifference is irrelevant and just an opinion is ludicrous.

Wiesel centers his speech around the problem of indifference in society not only in the holocaust, but what it has made the people into; hypocrites. He uses many examples to help build his cause that we as a society have successfully recognized problems, but have failed miserably in actually doing something about them. Wiesel uses pathos and logos to make the reader feel guilt and sorrow for what they've done and to be well aware that it isn't just Wiesel's opinion on society that makes it indifferent; it's plain facts. By using different examples he can invoke a motivation in the reader to try to finally make a change and not just state the problem and stand there. 

These thoughts were running through my mind when reading Thoreau's essay. Thoreau exemplifies the problem of society today by using many different cases in which it occurred. He, like Wiesel, focuses on the problem of indifference in society and how it has made us into machines that he claims don't even have a conscience because of how deep we are in the predicament. Thoreau's main argument may focus more on the government, but his overall message is to convince the people that the way they are acting and wrong and it's actually hurting our society. By using examples and sharply stating what the people are doing wrong, Wiesel and Thoreau convey their message and their thoughts on society very clearly and effectively. 

After I finished reading Thoreau's essay I began to ponder on Wiesel's speech and it led me to evaluate what I've been doing my whole life: being indifferent. 

When you take into consideration how many variables are thrown at you on a daily basis and how you react to them you can begin to see how truly lazy we become; not physically, but mentally also. For example, take a simple situation you face on a normal day: you just got your government test back and see that you got a C on it. You are well aware that one of the main reasons you did poorly was because the teacher was moving on with the chapter too fast for you to comprehend anything. What do you do? That's right, you go to your friends and complain about how bad of a teacher they are, you complain to your parents that it isn't your fault you performed so bad, you complain to even your other teachers when frankly, they don't care. But the problem is, when do you actually approach your government teacher face-to-face and tell them the real problem? You don't. 

Indifference or human nature? Whatever it may be, you can't argue the fact that we are indifferent every day of our lives in too many ways. I believe the main reason is because indifference has been so overused that no one would ever attempt to just stop and think about what they can do to change what may seem like a small situation at the time. Instead, they bring up the problem and expect someone else to finish the job.

The truth is, there is no one else to finish that job for you. We are all part of this world for a reason and maybe that reason could be to help others be aware of their actions and not only take note of them, but tackle the situation. We need to make a voice of ourselves and use our consciences, use our extraordinary hopes, and be the humans we were made to be.

Let's be involved. Let's be caring. Let's be spontaneous. Let's be anything but indifferent.

THIS IS MY FREEBIE!!!!!

Sorry, procrastination got the best of me and now I'm stuck here with no time to write my blog, I'll be back next week!!