Life!

I grew up knowing what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Ever since I can remember I have wanted to be a veterinarian. Well some things change. Since my sophomore year has started, I have been leaning further and further away from vet school. I really just don’t think it would be for me. I don’t know if I could handle four more years of schooling after I finish my first four. I also don’t know if I want to spend all of that money that is going to take a good bit of time to pay back. I have also realized that I am not very fond of math. I mean I can do it and I seem to be pretty good at it (sometimes!) but it just really isn’t my thing. Being a vet, I feel like I would have to do a lot of math and conversions and stuff, and it might not be that hard but I just really feel like it would make me happy. I want a job that is satisfying and fun! Why have a job you don’t enjoy if you are planning on having that career for the rest of your life? So now that I have no idea what I am going to do with my life, I am back to the square I was at when I was four years old, when kids shouldn’t care what they want to do yet.

The career options I have in mind now are on the verge of being unrealistic. All I want to do is run a ranch in Tennessee with beef cows and horses. But the way things are now-a-days, it doesn’t look like I could make a living doing that which means I would have to have a day job too. Then I would have to come home in the evenings and take care of the farm, and to me, that’s not the way the dream should go! I guess I could stay in animal science with a business emphasis, that would probably be ok, then I could be set for several different types of careers. Or I could just be a bum! Some people do that and it seems to work for them! No but really, I have to decide what I want to do by the end of this year so I can figure out my classes and all and so the college I’m in can get everything straight. I plan to do a whole bunch of research of Christmas break, when I have time to actually breathe and sit down and think through all of this rationally. Finding time to figure out how you want life to go is a magic trick in itself!

Do you feel like you work load should not be as heavy as it is, but then other times you can’t find anything to do? Like sometimes I have so much work I have no idea if I will be able to finish it all in time, then other times I sit here and twiddle my thumbs and wonder if there is anything else I can do to get ahead to even out the work load. Some teachers don’t give any work which is always nice, and others pile it on like you don’t have any other classes except theirs. I mean I know I shouldn’t complain because I signed up for the class and all, but sometimes I just wonder if they want us to be tired for class. That is usually how I end up, I don’t know about you. I try to stay awake in all of my classes because I feel it is disrespectful to the teacher if I am laying there sleeping, but sometimes it is all I can do to keep my eyes open. The night before that class I was probably doing all of this homework I had for the next few days and for the class I am in, and not only is it tiring, it also drains your mind and soul! I’ll admit that sometimes I put things off until last minute, but so far this school year I do 95% of my work ahead of time, and I still get swamped. I also try to balance out my school life with my social life, but the social part usually gets put on the back-burner until the weekend, and even sometimes then I don’t go out and see friends and have a good time because I have so much work to do.

With all the work, it just makes me realize even more that I need to figure out the road I am following so all of this work isn’t for nothing. That is what I worry about, wasting time where it could have been spent somewhere else. The classes I have that deal with animal science don’t really seem like work at all because I really enjoy learning that kind of stuff, but some of the others feel like they aren’t relevant to the career I want; therefore, making them hard to enjoy. I am a hands on kind of person, and learning from a book just doesn’t feel natural to me. However, there are people in the world that love learning processes from a text, and that is perfectly fine, but if I can’t actually see it happening, I almost couldn’t care less. That’s part of the reason I want to have a farm or ranch and grow things to make a living, because you can see how you are affecting what you come into contact with, and you can see yourself making money that will pay the bills. I also like having things that need to be looked after a little bit. I love to take care of things and feel like I had a hand in making that things life a little easier. Maybe like a calf or something. They need a little help at first to stay well and be healed when sick. When I see that I made an impact, it fills my heart a little bit more. So I guess I just need to find a way to make me new dream career come true. I’m not afraid to work hard for it, but I want to see the change that’s happening.

Tears

This may pertain to the girls more than the boys because for some reason society has geared the male population to not show emotion in front of others, which I think is silly. Anyhow, when your parents dropped you off for college and helped you move in, did they cry when they left? Or better yet, did your mom cry? I know mine did and this is my second year. Not only did she get emotional at that time, she gets a little upset every time she leaves, and to be truthful, so do I. But I am one of those people that will cry when I see someone else is really upset or will laugh when I don’t even know what is funny!

One of my apartment mate’s parents came to visit this weekend for a sorority event and the morning they left, her mom started to tear up and was stalling so she wouldn’t have to leave. The dad looked and the mom and said ‘Oh come on, no crying, we’ll see her soon.” It is true that we go home and see our parents every once in a while and we talk to them on the phone regularly. But that doesn’t seem to make things any easier because we still don’t see them everyday, and for some of us, the change is drastic and takes a while to get used to. I know that every time I go home, it gets harder and harder for me to come back to school and I have no idea why. I think it might be because I realize I am that much closer to entering the real world and I have to go back to paying bills again and all that jazz. Then when my mom tears up or gets a frog in her throat and says “I’ll see ya later sweetie, be careful” I know it’ll be a while before I see her again and I don’t like it at all. Part of that may be because I can sense her sadness and it radiates to me. That always seems to make the drive a little longer.

But on the flip side, I do enjoy the freedom of not having parents around all the time to check up on me and I don’t have to ask permission to go somewhere or any of that. I know the situation of being on my own and taking care of myself is overwhelming but I welcome the challenge because I know I can’t ride my parent coat tails all my life. It may be hard or sad at times, but I have to suck it up and deal with it! When my mom leaves and she wants to cry, but won’t, I know she too has realized its part of the process, and crying isn’t going to change that, is just makes it a little harder. So how do you feel about parents getting emotional, if yours even do? Does it make you a little sad too because they are leaving, or because you hate to see them upset? Or are you glad to be rid of them and on your own?!

TATS

They started about 2000 years before Christ with the Egyptians and Nubians and have continued to be a form of body art ever since. They are called tattoos and what is it about them that either makes people love them or hate them? I know so many people that have tattoos and they don’t really bother me. In fact I thought about getting one for a while myself. I think they are very intriguing, especially if there is a story or meaning behind the ink, or maybe if you drew the design or created the idea yourself. I feel that it is one more way to express a thought or opinion, but some people might go a little overboard. My brother has a couple of them and some people look at them as being tacky or unattractive, but they don’t know the meaning or the story, or the reason he got them in the first place. Some people just have something that means so much to them that they want the world to know about it, but it also draws a little bit of attention, which may be the reason some people get them. Whether it is for a relative or friend that died, or a celebration of life, or just to be unique, people are entitled to it. And it was their money, so why should we care?!

In some cultures, the tattoos are a sign of rank are age and they let others know who to show respect and who needs to respect them. In ancient times, slaves and criminals were marked to show that they had lesser value, or that they had done something wrong and the community needed to beware of that person. Others were marked as a right of passage into adult hood or to tell a story of the hardships that person had to face in their lifetime. In some cultures, throughout a person’s life, they get certain tattoos on their body that tells their life story and what they have had to deal with. By the end of their life, their body may be completely covered with pictures that tell their stories and the trails or periods of happiness they went through.

Even though I don’t personally have any tattoos, I hope that people think about the story behind the picture before they judge the person for having it. Most of the time, I feel like a person probably had a reason to modify their skin, unless they just decided one night that it would be cool to have it. In which case, I would suggest a little more thought because even though the ink can be removed with a laser, the procedure is pretty permanent! But if you can come up with a cool design that you decide you could live with for the rest of your life, more power to you!

Cartoons

So how many of you out there are considered an “adult” yet still like to watch cartoon movies?! Because I know that I am still a big fan and I can’t seem to help but want to watch them! I like the old school kind but the new ones are pretty good too since the technical part of them are increasingly better and the animations seem more real. Take Ratatouille for example. The animation makes him almost seem like a real mouse doing these things with the lighting and all. But it also has that, ‘this is defiantly a cartoon movie’ because some of the stuff would never happen. I guess that could go for a lot of movies these days, especially action. A lot of the stuff these actors do in the action movies like driving a car through a building or breaking there legs on four places and keep doing the mission they are on, come on. But then again, I guess that’s why it is a movie and doesn’t happen in real life. Going back to cartoons; have you ever thought about all the time and effort it takes to make a cartoon movie? I know a lot of it now-a-days is done on the computer, but back in the day, they drew all that stuff by hand and it just blows my mind that someone had enough patience to sit down and draw all of those sequences. I give them a little clap for all that hard work. Don’t you? Unless of course you think it isn’t that hard. And if that’s the case I reckon you are a darn fine cartoonist yourself! Anyway, I just wanted to draw attention to the people ‘behind the scenes’ in all of those cartoon movies I enjoy, and hopefully you do too. Also, the people who read the scripts for the characters, like in Finding Nemo, are very impressive. They really get into character and let me tell you, they got jokes! It’s like they can see the animation as they are reading the script, heck for all I know they can. All I know is that they are fascinating!

Parody!

Poor, poor, Miley Cyrus! The girl can’t do anything without getting critiqued, but this is funny! She does look a little odd in this music video because she is just so random. Please let me know what you think about the parody after watching the original. You may not find it as humorous as I do but that’s ok! Don’t get me wrong, Miley is ok, but sometimes she is just way over the top and she does things worthy of making fun of! Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr0Wv5DJhuk :original

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTC4qkb8Ppk :parody

It's Not Their Fault

Have you ever noticed how everyone loves puppies but as soon as they grow into dogs, some of those people don’t like them anymore? Well I think that is total bull. If you decide to get the puppy, then you shouldn’t understand that one day the thing is going to grow up and become an adult dog and eat a lot more and get into things they shouldn’t. They are animals, they don’t know any better unless we teach them, which is something that should be taught to them as puppies. For all those people that go out and buy puppies because they think they are cute then as soon as the dog starts to grow up and isn’t as cute anymore, so they take them to the shelter…WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? Those animals didn’t ask for you to take them in, if you feel like you may not be able to handle the dog once it matures, don’t get it, it is that simple. So now I have to get e-mails from the local animal shelter saying that if someone doesn’t adopt these dogs, they are going to be put down because there isn’t enough room for them. You know whose hands the blood is on when those animals get put down? The people that took them to the shelter.

Now I’m not talking about those people that find a stray animal and take them to the shelter so they can at least be fed. No those people do a good thing because they may not be able to adopt the dogs themselves so they give the owners a chance to find the dog. I am talking about the ones that go out here and look for an animal to give a home then turn around and decide that wasn’t a good decision and basically throw them to the county to take care of. I don’t understand how those people sleep at ngiht knowing that the animal they gave up may have to be euthanized because they may never find another home. Those dogs aren’t allowed to live in the shelter forever. Usually if they aren’t adopted by a new family within three months, they are put down because the county doesn’t want to waste any more food or time on them. And I can almost understand where the county is coming from on that point, because the shelter is a business, but if the dogs hadn’t have been given up on in the first place, they wouldn’t be there.

When I get the money and the space, I plan on going down there and adopting dogs and even if I can’t keep them all, I am going to find them a real home somewhere they can run and don’t have to be all cooped up. And the same goes for cats, even though I am not the biggest cat fan, they are in the same situation as the dogs. I hope that reading this will make someone go down to the shelter today and pick out a dog or puppy and give it a good home. They don’t deserve to have to live there and count the days until they get adopted or the county decides they need to get rid of a few. It’s unfair…so please please please, help them!

Mountain Folks

One of the first things we notice about people is the way they talk. We don’t all have the same speaking voice, especially where I was born and raised. I never thought I talked differently at all, I just thought that was the way the words were supposed to sound. I have always said ‘yall’ and ‘reckon’, it was the way I was raised and I never thought twice about it until someone made fun of me in school one day for my ‘southern accent’. I was born and raised in the Shenandoah Valley and had lived there my whole life. How was it possible that I talked differently from the same people I had grown up with? When I would tell people I had lived here all my life and didn’t think I talked any differently than any of the rest of them, they would argue that I did. People in my classes used to tell me I talked like I was from Georgia or somewhere in the Deep South. I do admit that I draw out some of my vowels a bit and would such as ‘tiger’ and ‘five’ are pronounced with long ‘I’ sounds but that is about the only difference I have noticed. When I try to explain that to my peers, they look at me and laugh and tell me that I sound way more country than most of the people they have met from the area so I guess ill never be able to win that argument. I even asked my family if they think the way I talk sounds different from anyone else. Most of them say no, and that I pronounce my words just like the rest of them, but others that don’t see me very much tell me I have a little twang to my voice. My dad says that if that’s true he has no idea where it came from, but I think that is because it might have come from him!

It wasn’t until recently that I discovered I speak with a different dialect of English than many other people that live near by. It’s called Appalachian English, and some of the words were derived from how Irish settlers spoke, and many new words were formed by mountain folk and just drifted up through the mountains with travelers. When I began to do some research on the different way of talking, I noticed that I used a lot of the same vocabulary as the mountain folk, as did the rest of my family. I am not the only one that has been asked “Hey where are you from?”. My brother got it a lot when he went down to North Carolina for school. They tend to speak the same way down there but with a little different of an accent on the words. I found it funny when my brother called and told me that someone asked him where he came from, because he hardly ever got asked in high school, unlike me. However, as soon as he traveled a little bit, people began to wonder. As a result of him going to school in a more southern state, he came back with some new phrases that I had to think about to understand what they meant so I reckon they had some mountain folk down there too!

YouTube has a video about Appalachian English and the old timers that are very fluent in speaking it. Some say that the dialect is inferior and that the people that speak ‘mountain’ are just lazy and lack the intelligence to speak properly. I don’t think it is inferior at all. We talk this way because we were raised this way and we can’t help if we sound a little more country than others. I don’t make fun of how people up north talk. Yes, it may be irritating at times with the spin they put on the words, but I keep those thought to myself. However, some people have no problem telling others what they think about them. In the video, the person interviews these little old back woods men and women and ask them how they way certain phrases and what those phrases mean. A lot of the words they use are made up but everyone in the community understands how they are used. ‘Si-gogglin’ for example means that something is built crooked and looks awful. For people that weren’t generally liked very well, they were nicknamed ‘peckerwoods’. Lots of older women called traveling salesmen this term. On the other hand, people that no one knew but looked like they had the potential to be very nice were called ‘jaspers’. If the folks didn’t know your name, but you appeared that you may be a nice character, they tried to be a little more respectful with the words they used toward you! The word ‘plumb’ came to be a replacement for the phrase ‘all the way’. For example, instead of saying all the way worn out, they would say plumb worn out. I use that one a lot myself, just because I grew up with my dad using it all the time and it just stuck.

Simple words that everyone uses today had a little bit of a different pronunciation towards the end of the word. For example, flour for some people is pronounced ‘fl-our’, but for mountain talk it is pronounced ‘fl-hour’ with the ‘our’ drawn out. We also generalize certain things such as soda. Whether it is Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, or Coca-Cola, we call it coke. A lot of the English we use is grammatically incorrect but most people are still able to understand it. For example, instead of saying I saw you the other day at the grocery store, we say, I seen ya the other day at the grocery store. Many of the phrases we use different verb tenses but we mean the same thing and most outsiders can still understand what is being said as long as it inst too extreme. I have learned to tell people that make fun of the way I talk that I am proud of where I am from and that is just the way I was raised.