blahhh

I need to update. Sorry for being lame. I’m working on some stuff and I’ll get my butt in gear soon.

COMING UP…

1. A video slide show with audio of environmental sustainability in East Lansing/MSU. I’m half way done with it!!!

2. A YouTube video of me doing my stand up at WLNS Channel 6! Not my story or anything…the reporter was jsut nice and let me do a stand up on her story!!! I still have to edit the video.

3. A really cool photo essay on MSU!!! It’s still in the works, folks.

I’ll get this stuff to your computer screen within the next month…MAX. Hopefully sooner, but I can’t promise anything…

Update

Hey. Sorry to my EXTENSIVE amount of readers out there. I have been MIA since school ended…My goal, however, is to start updating again and make blogs/videos/citizen journalism type stuff my goal for second summer semester, since I have no classes.

Here’s what’s going on with me lately. I have a journalism summer class and a women’s studies summer class. The women’s studies is an elective, of course. I also have an internship at WLNS Channel 6 in Lansing.

This summer, I’ve had several life-changing events/realizations. First, I am having a long-running feud with a professor. I’ll admit, I was argumentitive, in the slightest. But c’mon, if you could make your case for an interpretive grade, wouldn’t you? I was never argumentitive in a BITCHY and ATTACKING manner, but of course, this guy may think so, as I am inclined to say by some observations of mine. It’s probably not approprite, however. I just think journalism is very interpretive and relative. Some people may THINK they’re right, but so may the other side of the argument. There’s no way to tell who, in fact, is right.

Second, for the first time ever, I had someone leave an inappropriate voice message on my phone…I will have a blog on a topic like this later. This message just so happened to be VERY inappropriate, and I had to take actions as to keep this person from talking to me again. It was a completely random, crazy voice message. I imagine sometime in my life, after this has settled a little more, I’ll be big time into a cause to prevent these things.

And LAST of all…this is a positive thing…I have decided what I no-doubt will do with my career! I have decided to be an internet-based journalist, which, conveniently, MSU has NO classes on. I did hear that the school is in the process of revamping the classes for journalism, but COME ON ALREADY. Knowing my luck, I’ll probably graduate before I can even get my hands on this new program.

For those of you who don’t know about internet-based media, I’ll explain it. It’s where a journalist works on packaged-based stories for the internet. Essentially, I’ll be working for a newspaper, but I will be diong my best to write stories suited for the internet and adding pictures and video along with it. Pretty much, It’ll be a lot of work.

Anyhow, I’m actually at work at Channel 6 right now, so I’d better get back to it!

Macroecon is OBVIOUSLY so useful in my future

I’m sorry to complain and not put in the work to do a good, investigative blog, but I think this is worth mentioning.

Remember the short post I added complaining that an econ help room TA claimed she had my professor last year and had no idea what was going on in his class? Well, friends, I have more news on this professor.

Twice a week, I babysit an adorable 2-year-old girl while her mother goes to class and her father is at work. They’re quite a young couple and they attended MSU for their bachelors degrees. As I was chattin’ it up with the girl’s dad after he got back from work, I mentioned something about macroecon and how I hate it. He then proceeded to ask me who I had. After I answered him, he burst out a phrase this professor uses DAILY. (I wish I could put it, but I don’t want to be disrespectful toward this professor, especially since he’s still in control of my grade.) He then started talking in the professor’s voice and it was hilarious.

Seriously. Someone who had him 5-6 years ago ALSO thinks his class is terrible! You don’t understand how much trouble I’ve gone through with this guy. I took his class last summer. I had to retake it to redeem myself in the GPA department. Goodbye $1,300.

I know what you’re thinking. “It’s so stupid to retake a professor that you thought was terrible.” I’m with you on that. However, when I looked up the whopping TWO professors (including my guy) teaching macroeconomics this semester the other one was just about the only person with a rank on allmsu lower than this guy’s.

Not only that, I e-mailed the head of the economics department to complain about this unfair scheduling. He responded with “Well, I have NO idea why you don’t like this guy! He’s a great teacher and everybody loves him!”

Yeah, check allmsu, buddy.

At least my professor has funny jokes. Maybe he should just stick to telling jokes, though.

I’m actually in his class right now and he’s babbling on about Big Macs. I have no idea why, considering this has nothing to do with macroeconomics or what is on our final.

Bella and Me

Sorry about promising an fmylife.com post, I’m waiting on some information to make your reading experience more enjoyable. Anyways, here’s my first post of the week (since I’ve been neglecting blogging responsibilities)!

For some reason, I decided I wanted a bunny really badly at the end of my freshman year of college. My basic reasoning was that they are ridiculously cute and I can’t have a dog.

I searched dilligently for months, going to county fairs in southwest Michigan (where I’m from), talking to breeders online, etc. Honestly, I still don’t understand how it could possibly be so hard to find a rabbit. I did have a checklist, but it wasn’t too limiting. Criteria a rabbit had to meet was this:

1. Does it have floppy ears?

2. Is it 5 pounds or under?

3. Is it lively and interesting?

For some reason, this made a rabbit impossible to find.

I prepared myself for the arrival of a new pet by doing research and I became DEAD SET on getting a rabbit. I even asked my roommate before I moved in if she was OK with a rabbit. She reluctantly replied with a yes, for obvious dorm-related reasons.

When all hope seemed lost, my ex-boyfriend’s roommate told me MSU was having a fair-type-thingy on campus in December. So, I went out there to find myself a floppy-eared companion. The only problem was that every single rabbit at that fair seemed utterly bored and to uncaring whether it was eaten for dinner or not. Obviously, I don’t want an emo, life-loathing rabbit.

I came to a breeder with Holland lops. This met the basic floppy ear, 5 pound requirement. There was one in particular that caught eye. I talked to the breeder and had her get it out of the cage. She could barely hold on to the rabbit because she was squirming all over the place, crawling up her shirt. Another thing that struck me as odd was that the breeder wasn’t sure if it was REALLY a girl (I still don’t know about that one…).

Anyways, it seemed like a good enough rabbit so I bought her for $40. And hey, I got a free travel cage out of it too.

As a new rabbit owner, I thought reading up on rabbits was an appropriate action, since I now had this unfamiliar pet. It was your basic “rabbit proof your home, make time for your pet, feed it every day” sort of crap.

One thing that the books did say that I was unaware of, however, was that rabbits are easily litter trained. Score. Cats are easy to take care of and they are litter trained. Yes.

For your information, the books were wrong. Bella (I did NOT name her after Bella from Twilight) has still not taken to litter training. Basically, it’s because she’s an evil demon bunny.

To put this into perspective, has anyone seen the movie Marley and Me? BELLA IS THE MARLEY OF RABBITS. Seriously, I think the rabbit has evil scheming plots cranking under her furry little lop-eared head.

And do I have memoire likes the book?! You bet your ass I do.

She didn’t have too many mishaps in her younger days. Oh yeah, except for that time my friend picked her up and put her on his lap for some pettin’ love and she peed all over his lap.

Speaking of peeing mishaps, Bella often piddles all over my rugs in the bathroom. I guess the plus side is that I always have clean rugs for a small fee of $2 every other week.

During spring break, when I brought her home, she suddenly got a lot more territorial than she ever was. When I had my hand in her cage to refill her food bowl, she growled at me and then bit me. I came home one day to see my mom holding the rabbit outside with a bunny leash on her. My mom held out her front paw and made her wave at me. Honestly, I feel like lots of other people have moms that would do this. Anyway, the fact that my mother had gotten her out of the cage by herself scared the crap out of me because I was SURE she had bitten my mom. I guess she didn’t though, since my mom was smart about it and let Bella hop out of her cage on her own.

My little nocturnal black rabbit happens to love digging, chewing and running around like a crazy bunny at night. As a result, I have to get up and give her some hay to make her shut the  hell up. At least twice a night. Lucky for me, my roommate is an incredibly heavy sleeper.

I got a litterbox to put in the corner of Bella’s cage. She sees it as a late-night digging toy. It’s annoying since sometimes she has the tendency to pee when outside her cage.

This is the worst of all–my roommate had decided to move Bella’s cage to clean. The cage is sitting in the corner of the room where there just so happens to be tons of cords because dorm rooms are set up horribly. Little did my roommate know that I had situated the cords so that Bella would not chew them. Needless to say, my ethernet cord was chewed through.  The next day I had come back to see that Bella chewed through her cord too.

I was set back $20 for this.

Next thursday Bella has an appoitment to be spayed (or neutered, if she happens to be a he.) The vet said it would take care of several of her behavioral problems.

I just want to let everyone know that however much of a pain in the ass Bella is, I still love her. I cried when she got sick once, thinking she was going to die. Whenever I get home from a stressful day, I pick her up to pet her and just feel so much better. I love her and I’ll let you know if she’s easier to deal with once spayed.

You’ve GOT to be kidding me

This is more like a twitter, but I’d like to share this with all of you.

Upon going to the econ help room, I came to the realization that I am screwed. The girl helping me was an economics major. She said she had my professor last year and had no clue what was going on and just guessed on everything. Now that she is further along in her schooling, she NOW understands the concepts from that class.

I’d say an “FML” is in order.

My next blog will be on fmylife.com. Until I post on it, look it up and read it. It’s great.

Dorm, dorm, go away.

I am successfully avoiding studying for my macroeconomics exam because I am severely stressed out and want some time for relaxation and reflection.

The problem with unwinding is that I am a sophomore and i still live in the dorm. Don’t get me wrong, the dorms have been good to me the past two years.

It is so nice to have 50 neighbors on my floor alone that are the same age as me. I have made friends on my floor this year and last year that are very valuable to me. Most people think I’m crazy for this, but I actually think the dorm food is delicious, especially since they have so many options. I don’t mind having fresh fruit and vegetables every day at all. I also don’t mind not having to pay bills that have a deadline because I’m horrible with paying bills.* Simply put: university tv is awesome. Furthermore, I live in a suite-style dorm. I don’t mind cleaning my bathroom at all, so it’s not a problem. I THOROUGHLY enjoy midnight scream. I like being so near the tennis courts. You better believe I never have a problem getting to class, since I’m so close.*

Overall, the dorm has pretty much enhanced my college experience. However, call me prissy or overly-dramatic or whatever, but I am to the point where I don’t want my own space, I need my own space.

Why, you may ask? Don’t worry; I have more than enough examples as to why.

I have shared a room with no one for the prior 18 years of my life. I have shared a room with two different girls for the past two years. It gets old. I didn’t mind it for the first year and a half, but now I could never share a room with another person ever again. My future husband is getting his own room.

My roommate likes to study with the tv on. I, on the other hand, don’t. I already know what you’re thinking. “Duh. Easy fix. Just go to the study lounge or library.” This is exactly what I do when I study, but I would much more enjoy studying in my underwear laying on my stomach on the floor while eating easy mac. I feel this is not too unreasonable.

The next problem has a short back story/explanation. I can tend to be overly-sensitive. I often tear up, if not cry, while reading articles on the middle east, when Cimba’s dad dies in The Lion King and whenever I am mad at anyone for anything. I would probably even cry if I hit a cat with my car, even though I think cats are pure evil. I also have this complex where I don’t like people to know when I’m crying. This whole thing is especially ironic because I am probably one of the most manic people you have ever met.

Nonetheless, I was really worked up over something one day. Since everyone is always everywhere you go in the dorms, I resorted to crying in the shower. I needed a shower anyway, so it wasn’t like i went too far out of my way. Honestly though, my roommate/suitemates probably heard me and were like HOW PATHETIC. But really, it is. They all know how overly sensitive I am. Even if they did hear, I’m sure they thought nothing of it.

Even though I love the dorm food, I love to cook, so it’s bittersweet. I keep watching the food network and uncontrollably fantasizing about french toast and bruchetta and stir fry and COOKIES. For once, I just want grilled cheese with my tomato soup. Most of all, I want to use the Magic Bullet that my mom bought me for Christmas to make smoothies or guacamole or something.

I loved her to death, but my roommate last year was the loudest snorer on planet Earth. Enough said.

I like to decorate. Also, I like tacky patterns and decorations. I want more pink. And zebra print. And Marilyn Monroe. And framed pictures of friends and family all over the place. Not to mention, I want space for a mini Christmas tree in December.

I want a big girl bed.

Bella, as cute as her floppy ears and wiggly nose are, is definitely not allowed here.

Basically–I am a control freak in need of my fix of comfort, while not having to bow to the needs or wishes of others.

Lucky for me, my lease for my house starts this May. If you actually read this, I’m sorry that you can’t get your 10 minutes back.

NOTE: Regarding my bills: I don’t know why I have a problem with paying bills on time. For some reason I don’t like opening bills and paying them. It’s not like I can’t afford to pay them; I can. I just get some weird anxiety about it, so I just end up not paying it and getting charged extra in the end. I currently have a chiropractor bill sitting on my desk that I have left unopened for the past two weeks. Regarding going to class: Even if I have one of those classes that is wasting my time (macroeconomics), I go and waste THE PROFESSOR’S TIME by messing around on facebook the entire hour and studying on my own after class. This is an appropriate way to “stick it to the man” (or the University) since I’ve found from experience that you probably should not express your honest opinion on how the University is running things. It will bite you in the ass, guaranteed.

Journalism deserves better

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say something pretty risky: HOW IS ING MAGAZINE SPONSORED BY ASMSU? HOW IS IT GETTING ACTUAL READERSHIP? HOW IS IT STILL BEING PUBLISHED!?

I got an issue of Ing Magazine in my mailbox recently and it was immediately stuffed into my trash can.

Many of you may know that a January 2009 Ing article looked astoundingly similar to an October 2008 article in Spartan Edge. This was no coincidence, my friends. Ing magazine actually published a copyrighted article published in Spartan Edge. Our editor-in-chief Amanda Peterka handled the situation with Ing staff (their editor-in-chief had stepped down a few months prior to the incident) and published an article in Spartan Edge.

State News also wrote an article on this situation, although the article was a little off as to some of the details of the situation.

Copyright law gives the owner of any certain copyrighted material the exclusive right to reproduce materials.

According to copyright.gov, “it is illegal to violate any of the rights provided by the copyright law to the owner of the copyright.”

Of course, the University does not always settle things legally and handles issues within the system itsself. Even if it wasn’t handled legally, my question is this: Why wasn’t this handled at all (especially within the School of Journalism)?

I understand that there were several componants of this situation. Spartan Edge’s own Nick Mordowanec did e-mail the article to Ing Magazine, so this leaves him partly at fault for the situation at hand. However, Spartan Edge printed the material first, months after Ing was e-mailed the article by the author.Ing Magazine still holds the liability of not checking up on such things, especially since it is known that Mordowanec is a SE staff member. Not to mention, whoever did the layout of the page the article was on put THE WRONG NAME ON THE ARTICLE. As it turns out, Ing’s “author” of the article Mordowanec wrote had no idea her name was on the byline. This is unacceptable.

I respect Jane Briggs-Bunting since she does so much for the School of Journalism, but she made the wrong descision in how she handled the situation. Ing Magazine should not still be published, shoved into dorm mailboxes, let alone sponsored by ASMSU.

Michigan State University should not condone plagairism or “design errors.” By letting this problem slide, they did just that. In journalism, there is no room for errors such as this. What would have happened if The Detroit Free Press made such an error? I know it is a stretch, since this might never happen in a newspaper such as that, but WE ARE THE FUTURE DETROIT FREE PRESS WRITERS. Do you want the person who made this error to be in control of your local news? I don’t.

Ing should have owned up and taken a hard fall for this “design error” so they could at least look like a responsible, reliable media outlet. However, there is no reason this publication should still be a functioning media outlet available to students all around campus.

I am scared for the future of journalism, if these are my peers.

UPDATE: Spartan Edge has just published an editorial in this weeks (March 25, 2009) issue of this problem. Am I protective of Spartan Edge since I am a staff member? OF COURSE. But this is not the true issue at hand. I REPEAT: MY LOYALTY TO SPARTAN EDGE IS NOT WHY ING’S ACTIONS ARE AN ISSUE. The fact is this: had this have been any other newspaper that was plagiarized, I would still be fuming about this problem. I can’t believe some of my peers would stoop so low.

Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems?

Sorry I’ve been dead the world this past week and a half. Last week I had four exams, so obviously biology, astronomy, astronomy lab and my star quiz took precedence over blogging.

Confessions of a Shopaholic= FOUR STARS. From me, at least. I know what you’re thinking, “this is SUCH a typical chick flick and girls only like it because of the clothes in it.”

Well, the clothes were pretty cute; except, of course, that hairy monster looking overcoat Isla Fisher was wearing at one point. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please refer to the below.

With this movie, I feel as if someone said, “let’s expose a completely relevant and problematic habit society has and make a movie on it.” And this was the result. Shopping is not merely a problem because of the economy. The way this materialistic society works is to make us feel inadequate or not as happy without buying stuff. I can’t judge anyone else on this because I am guilty of this myself.

We (most) have at least seven pairs of pants, whether it be jeans or sweatpants, to last us out the week. We have enough sweatshirts to keep us warm, shoes to keep our feet dry and shirts to cover ourselves. We don’t need anymore than that. If I had to clean out my closet to only the things I needed, I would be clearing out thousands of dollars worth of mini skirts, uggs, peeptoe heels, coach wristlets and skanky party dresses.

I have a love hate relationship with materialism. I love to get dressed up and look cute, which requires money. But at the same time, I HATE spending money on things I am just going to wear! They are NOT going to give me any sense of enjoyment. I’d be better off spending $1,000 on a really nice trip to Florida (which is where, as you can see, I wish I were right now).

The movie brings a sense of humor to something catastrophically not funny. According to PBS, the average family with credit card debt in 2001 was up to $4,126 in debt. This was an increase of 53 percent from the year I was born, 1989.

I tried showing my dad the preview and telling him it was not just a normal chick flick, but he didn’t believe me. All I can say is this: it looks like a chick flick. The underlying meaning, however, applies to anyone. Men around my age group get themselves into tremendous amount of debt too. Maybe it’s not over clothes, but something like a music fetish, too many trips to the bar, poor management of food supply (meaning going out to eat on a dialy basis. I know several people that do this), drugs or anything else that could be considered an addiction.

Too little money or not enough management of that money? The problem is with management! Not the opposite! People don’t seem to understand this.

Put your beer bottle down

I don’t ever want to hear someone say there is nothing to do but drink at MSU ever again.

It’s ridiculous. I can’t stand people that go home every weekend because they don’t want to participate in drinking and partying. The people that go home because there is “nothing to do here,” really are just lazy and want an excuse to hate it here.

Two weekends ago, I moseyed on down to Lansing to play laser tag at this place called Zap Zone with 10 of my friends. For the small fee of $15 for three games, I ran around a darkened jungle gym with black lights, random peepholes in walls and somewhere near 20 little kids. I still can’t understand how a bunch of ten-year-olds beat a group of college kids three times in a row.

It was a nice break from all collegiate norms, to say the least. Honestly though, we (all) don’t try hard enough to participate in an out-of-the ordinary weekend experience. Here’s a few suggestions I have either already experienced here at MSU or have yet to explore.

1. Planetarium shows

OK, it seems lame to go to a nerd-fest and learn about planets and stars, etc. In all actuallity, it is extremely interesting and, not to mention, it’s cheap. Walking into the planetarium, there was a telescope pointed at Venus, which was in a crescent at the time. To those who don’t know much about the night sky, it looks like a very bright star with the naked eye. Inside they have a show which can, at times, be a little dry. After the show, however, there is a very cool presentation showing several constellations and a roller coaster ride that literally makes you want to throw up (in a good way). It costs $2.50. (At the gift shop, i suggest not getting the astronaut ice cream because it tastes like cardboard.)

2. Blue Midnight Hookah Lounge

These are my friends at Blue Midnight, minus me, sadly. It was near Halloween, hence the weird outfits.

Located in downtown East Lansing on Albert St., Blue Midnight has over 35 flavors of shisha. It has this trippy Arabian combined with Alice in Wonderland feel to it with a mural of Alice and a melting clock hung on the wall. The atmosphere is relaxing, with mammoth couches and sheer curtains hung to divide areas where others are smoking hookah.It’s a great place to go with a group of friends and socialize. The best flavor of hookah, by far, is Tiger’s blood. Try it!

3. Plays, musicals, etc.

A seriously underrated place on campus is the Wharton Center. There are some great plays going on there a lot of the time. Last year, I saw the Vagina Monologues and it was life-changing. Right now they’re doing Spring Awakening, which I have not seen, but I hear it is very good.

4. Pinball Pete’s

Don’t be scared by the dingy floors and Titanic-under-water looking ceiling. I love this place. Although it seems as if someone is not taking care of the appearance of this place, it certainly has enough games. Rather than going to the bar and playing pool, if you’re 21, this place always has no wait for pool tables. Complete with skeeball, dance dance revolution, pinball and more, it’s a nice visit to your inner-child. It’s also the closest thing we have to Dave and Buster’s in the area.

5. FREE movie rentals

There is a free movie rental place in Holden Hall in south complex. I’m almost positive that they have one of these in each complex. The only catch is that there is a late fee, so you have to make sure to get them back on time.

6. Yoga

This may sound a bit simple, but several people on my floor want to rent a yoga tape (Holden might have one…?) and rent the aerobics room in my dorm to do group Yoga. No joke–even 3-4 guys on my floor are enthusiastic to do this. It would be an easy, relaxing group activity. You could also try a yoga class with IM Sports. It costs something like $4 if you don’t have an all inclusive IM membership. If you do, it is free and yoga mats are supplied at the class. I can’t find the site , but they also offer several other kinds of dance classes. I once took a hip-hop class.

7. Pie Night

I never liked pie…until now. Every Thursday, some of my friends and I get together at one of our friend’s houses and get a pie from the Grand Traverse Pie Company. We buy a whole pie and split it amongst the group and brew a pot of coffee to go with it. We have it to the point that there are so many people going, we all end up paying only $3 for two slices of pie. We also get to sample each pie, which is always interesting. After pie, we usually have a game night and play things like Apples to Apples, Loaded Questions (Adult Version), What the F*ck, charades, etc. The other plus is that there is always someone bringing their friend, so I meet a new person every week. You could do this with anything, such as cookies or even a dinner.

8. University Activities Board

If you check the UAB web site, I promise that you will never be bored here. Although I have only gone to one of their events, Dice and Ice, I’ve always been looking at the folded cubes of paper accenting each table in the caf and finding myself wanting to go to several of their events. Besides free cosmic bowling and billiars every week, they have other activities as well. There are craft nights, open mic nights and even a mini project runway competition.

9. Bubble Island

I am a sucker for board games, as you can probably tell by the previous activities. At Bubble Island you can grab a delicious bubble tea and play games with a few friends for hours. Some people don’t like bubble tea, but I at least recommend trying it. I am also addicted to photo hunt, since they have a machine there for it that charges 25 cents per game.

10. Zap Zone

Of course, you already know my take on this place.

No such thing as good or bad; just what is.

Swat Valley, Pakistan is known as the “Switzerland of Pakistan,” with its clear, flowing waterfalls and lush green valleys. The only parallel it draws to Switzerland, however, is looks, since it became oppressed by Taliban in 2007.

The New York Times did a short video documentary following an 11-year-old girl and her father, who ran a private school for girls in the area.

The Taliban set Islamic law down in the area, making examples of citizens who defied the law by publicly beating them or displaying corpses of activists. Local police seems as if it does nothing, since the Taliban controls the area with these unpunished acts of violence.

According to the New York Times, boys schools are fully functioning while over 200 schools for girls have been blown up or closed down.

This is a devastating blow to women. I understand there are cultural differences and some cultures live by male dominance blah blah blah, but this simply has no place in the modern world. It’s a common pattern that male dominance reins and women are not allowed the same privelages. At some point, women’s rights has always won out in the history of every developed country. This undeniable pattern has shown us that male dominance and oppression has no place in modern, developing countries.

New Zealand was the first country to allow women the right to vote, establishing this in 1893. All leading nations in Europe and North America all eventually made it to the point where women were required to be treated, legally at least, as equals.

In parts of the area where youngsters seem more motivated to become something great and viciously starve for a higher education, it is simply unfair they are denied these rights. The worst part about this situation is that girls were given opportunity to have an education and then had it torn from their fingers, leaving them craving what they once had.

I’m not going to sit here and berate females in developed countries that not only allow women to have an education, but require them to, but it’s sad how most young women I see in my country do not appreciate the fact that they have what they do. I am continually surprised by the willingness and hunger to learn that females from developing countries have. In fact, at MSU, I see the foreign women  making more of an effort to do well in school than the American-born ones.

In the New York Times video, a young girl recites a passionate speech she has made about her country’s current situation and uses words like bestowed, heartland, militancy and, most impressive of all, idyllic. When I was in elementary or middle school, I did not know haf of these words, let alone how to apply them how she did. The child seems incredicly bright.

The daughter of the man who owns the school, who says she wants to be a doctor, brought her hands to her face and was left speechless and upset while discussing how sorrowful she is that her education can no longer be continued.

Her father wants her to become a politician.

How optomistic and driven these people are. My aspirations are to be a journalist. Not that I am downplaying the role of a journalist; I think it is one of the most important careers there is, but these people aim so much  higher than most people I know. I admirer them for that.

With my eyes watery, my heart heavy and a panging lump in my throat from this video, I try to sit and say, “to each his own.” I try to remind myself that there is no such thing as a universal right or wrong, but in situations like this make me have the hardest time believing this philosophy.

I no longer believe my high school’s boys track coach who told me, while I was training with the boys in the winter, “Lanie, there’s no such thing as good or bad. There’s just what is.”

I add on to this that there is a good and bad to an extent. As long as no one is hurt and no one’s free will is affected, there is no such thing as a set right or wrong or a set good and bad.

I’m so sorry for those girls in Pakistan and my heart goes out to them.