Ms. Parham said that my last post effectively used pathos to build my ethos. Except now, on my day off (happy Rosh Hashanah!) I find myself on the lacking side of an argument.
So you've already found out about how utterly awkward and rather introverted I sound. How I'd love to try and organize a drive to eventually contribute to the Westport Humane Society. It all sounds peachy, right?
Except, the sad thing is, most people will not happen to stumble across my blog. It will not pop up into your Facebook feed, saying "read me!", and it will not (hopefully) be blown up on a billboard asking for 5 minutes of your time. Instead it will probably rest in peace where we left it: the end of 3rd period World Lit.
But for the sake of the change I need to see, I can't and won't let it do that. The issue itself is much too big to even try and ignore; to put it in simplistic terms, it's the elephant in the room. As a girl who has watched animals come in and out of her life, I can say that standing by idly about the subject is the last thing I want to do. My family has never been shy to aiding animals before; we took care of a sickly cat who wandered into our yard looking for a home, until she later passed away due to natural causes. My mom likes to think that she came into our lives for a reason: she knew she would be taken care of with us. To this day I still think that although it was a tragic ending, I'm glad that her last decision was to come to us.
About 7.6 million companion animals (a.k.a. household dogs and cats) enter nationwide shelters every year. To put it in perspective, that's larger than the twice the population of Connecticut. With such a high number, it can be overwhelming for shelters to gain the resources that they need in order to properly care for these animals. Which is why although on a smaller scale, it would be personally satisfying and helpful to many animals to make a contribution to the humane society.
I won't bombard you with facts and shame to try and motivate you to go out right now and clean out the local Petco's shelves of food to donate. But at least for Fairfield, I want the best future to come for those animals that currently don't know where their next meal will come from, or if they can find a home.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Bigger Than The Cat's Meow
My dire obsession and affinity for all things involving animals, to most people, will come off as creepy and quite unnecessary. But to me, it's something that goes far deeper than the exclamations of "how cute!"
Being the awkward person I am, I've never particularly connected well with most people. Until I came to CGS, I didn't fully realize how to open up to people or how to even maintain a proper friendship. Of course I could go on and on about the regrettable transitioning through puberty days, but I'll leave it at this: I suck at human interaction. For most people it comes naturally, but for me, it's almost like a game that I have yet to figure out how to properly master. You make one wrong move, game over; you have to play the cards just right to score the happy ending. And to be quite honest, most of the time, I'm too tired or nervous to even play this game.
But animals, particularly dogs and cats that I was exposed to the most: they were the peak of my interest. If you can conjure up that warm, fuzzy, apple pie feeling that you get whenever you're around something you love, that's exactly how I feel when I'm around animals. This isn't to say in any way I feel less for humans, or do not care (because I feel very strongly about a lot of human rights issues) but that I'm far better at interacting with animals than I am with humans.
And anytime you see someone or something you care about being mistreated, taken advantage of, or in need, you feel this sense of urgency. You know that you have to help them. Which is why, in my small town of Fairfield, I want to help out the stray animals that have either been abandoned or lost. I don't mean to start piling on shame like the ASPCA commercial (cue "In The Arms of An Angel"), but I feel compelled to help when I see a lost dog or cat flyer stapled up onto a pole quite helplessly. Over the course of the past month, my family has cared for two lost animals that wandered into our yard, and I can only imagine how many more are out there. I would love to start a drive to collect food for the poor animals that would eventually be donated to the Humane Society, which is a no-kill shelter with affordable veterinary care for all animals.
If the class happens to skim over this, firstly: you're going to realize how terribly antisocial I sound, and secondly: I probably sound like a girl who would end up on TLC in 40 years with her own show documenting what a cat lady she is. But if you think about it, these animals are solely dependent on us and it's our choice to help them or shun them.
Being the awkward person I am, I've never particularly connected well with most people. Until I came to CGS, I didn't fully realize how to open up to people or how to even maintain a proper friendship. Of course I could go on and on about the regrettable transitioning through puberty days, but I'll leave it at this: I suck at human interaction. For most people it comes naturally, but for me, it's almost like a game that I have yet to figure out how to properly master. You make one wrong move, game over; you have to play the cards just right to score the happy ending. And to be quite honest, most of the time, I'm too tired or nervous to even play this game.
But animals, particularly dogs and cats that I was exposed to the most: they were the peak of my interest. If you can conjure up that warm, fuzzy, apple pie feeling that you get whenever you're around something you love, that's exactly how I feel when I'm around animals. This isn't to say in any way I feel less for humans, or do not care (because I feel very strongly about a lot of human rights issues) but that I'm far better at interacting with animals than I am with humans.
And anytime you see someone or something you care about being mistreated, taken advantage of, or in need, you feel this sense of urgency. You know that you have to help them. Which is why, in my small town of Fairfield, I want to help out the stray animals that have either been abandoned or lost. I don't mean to start piling on shame like the ASPCA commercial (cue "In The Arms of An Angel"), but I feel compelled to help when I see a lost dog or cat flyer stapled up onto a pole quite helplessly. Over the course of the past month, my family has cared for two lost animals that wandered into our yard, and I can only imagine how many more are out there. I would love to start a drive to collect food for the poor animals that would eventually be donated to the Humane Society, which is a no-kill shelter with affordable veterinary care for all animals.
If the class happens to skim over this, firstly: you're going to realize how terribly antisocial I sound, and secondly: I probably sound like a girl who would end up on TLC in 40 years with her own show documenting what a cat lady she is. But if you think about it, these animals are solely dependent on us and it's our choice to help them or shun them.
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Prep for Egypt Seminar: What's Going On?
A state of turmoil is a relative term; when used in different contexts, it has different meanings. For most American high school students, their mindset can be best described as in a state of turmoil. But what does it mean for an entire country undergoing a revolution?
In 2011, Egypt was thrown into a conflict that they did not yet realize the great momentum of. After overthrowing their corrupted president, Hosni Murabak, the military took charge and instead elected Mohammad Morsi shortly after. Morsi, however, had started to let the power get to his head and monopolize it all towards his own benefit, opposing many. After realizing that he too was not the leader fit for the country, the military once again overthrew him and is currently figuring out the situation. The threat of the Muslim Brotherhood is also lurking, being considered somewhat as a terrorist organization. Currently, the biggest challenge Egypt faces is within the social and political conflict on who will finally take power besides the military, and how the society is handling it. Clearly the violent protests and demonstrations have not helped to make any progress on the political standpoint, and the country's government is up in the air. Many have died over such a revolution and the way that society handles it will make all the difference to whether or not more lives will be taken.
I think the U.S. Government should only be involved so far as giving advice or input on the situation, but not controlling or making any decisions concerning it. We have generally been known to get into things that weren't necessary, and ended up spreading our American version of democracy and what we think is right, rather than what the country wants and needs.
Western media simplifies the conflict a lot, by portraying it in a very black and white sort of sense: here's what happened, here's how the people feel, here's what the U.S. is and is not doing. I think that it's not so easy to pinpoint things, especially in the midst of such a revolution, and I think that they should pay more attention to how this is affecting the society, because not only is it a government in turmoil, it's people just like us.
My questions are:
Over the next year or so, what do you hope to see happen in Egypt?
What are the current dangers that Egyptian people are facing today?
In 2011, Egypt was thrown into a conflict that they did not yet realize the great momentum of. After overthrowing their corrupted president, Hosni Murabak, the military took charge and instead elected Mohammad Morsi shortly after. Morsi, however, had started to let the power get to his head and monopolize it all towards his own benefit, opposing many. After realizing that he too was not the leader fit for the country, the military once again overthrew him and is currently figuring out the situation. The threat of the Muslim Brotherhood is also lurking, being considered somewhat as a terrorist organization. Currently, the biggest challenge Egypt faces is within the social and political conflict on who will finally take power besides the military, and how the society is handling it. Clearly the violent protests and demonstrations have not helped to make any progress on the political standpoint, and the country's government is up in the air. Many have died over such a revolution and the way that society handles it will make all the difference to whether or not more lives will be taken.
I think the U.S. Government should only be involved so far as giving advice or input on the situation, but not controlling or making any decisions concerning it. We have generally been known to get into things that weren't necessary, and ended up spreading our American version of democracy and what we think is right, rather than what the country wants and needs.
Western media simplifies the conflict a lot, by portraying it in a very black and white sort of sense: here's what happened, here's how the people feel, here's what the U.S. is and is not doing. I think that it's not so easy to pinpoint things, especially in the midst of such a revolution, and I think that they should pay more attention to how this is affecting the society, because not only is it a government in turmoil, it's people just like us.
My questions are:
Over the next year or so, what do you hope to see happen in Egypt?
What are the current dangers that Egyptian people are facing today?
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Where I'm From: Fairfield
Where I'm From
Where I'm from,
the people are not the nicest,
not the brightest,
but can definitely be the richest.
Where I'm from,
it's not rude to stare at the person
wearing a different shirt,
boasting a different culture,
or donning a different skin color.
In fact,
it would be the ultimate displeasure
to find yourself being the one
standing out.
Where I'm from,
everyone has a name and a face.
"Katie's become a cheerleader!"
"Did you hear about Kylie's party?"
Everyone knows what's up
and what's gone down.
Where I'm from
everything is connected,
everyone is connected,
except somehow we're all still separated.
It's as if
we've built a hierarchy
never discussed,
but always enforced.
Where I'm from
there used to be a timid girl,
always known as "one of the five Asians,"
barely had a name,
didn't like her face.
Where she went,
she never felt that way again.
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