Sometimes I wonder if my true internal struggles come mostly from outside sources or from my own secret psychoticness. However, I have picked up some wisdom and insights which are useful for managing your internal psychological problems. I am here to share them with you, though undoubtedly no one is reading this.
-Everyone has at least some elements of a psychological disease. Maybe it's paranoid-schizophrenia, maybe manic-dpression, obsessive-compulsive, megalomania, or chronic anxiety. It doesn't really matter that much what it is, what's important is to recognize that yes, you probably have elements of those who might be considered "certifiable", and there is no escaping that, because there really is no such thing as the norm.
-The only people who are really crazy are the ones who think they are sane. Like I said before, everyone is crazy, but as long as you know you are a psychopath, you cannot really be considered certifiable. Once you think you're sane, you're a lost cause. Have faith in craziness, it's the one element of your personality you will always carry with you.
-While it is important to extend the benefit of the doubt to people, first impressions are not meant to be dismissed. (Shannon taught me all this) Humans actually do have a good capacity for making preliminary judgements on people, so your first impression of someone might not be so very wrong. The important thing is to hold this impression in reserve, and get to know the person enough to find aspects of their character that justify such a belief. If you do, you might just find that your first impression was not so far from the truth.
-People are all the same. People always have been this way. Nothing has changed- past, present, or future, people are always the same. (amen d.vis)
-You cannot please everyone. So simple, so true, so hard to remember.
-There are people who go to school because you are supposed to go to school, and there are people who go to school because they want to learn. If you're open to it, school (the educational aspect of it, anyway) can actually be kind of fun. (I'm a nerd.)
-If you talk about your boyfriend/girlfriend, and you say "I hate him/her" more than ten times in a relationship, then it's probably not a good one. You cannot be defined by your relationship status. Granted, some people do, but you shouldn't. If you are unhappy about a relationship, and you a) talk about it and it doesn't change after a significant period of time or b) you don't have the communication pathways to talk about your issues, than more likely than not your relationship is, as Dane Cook might say, a relation-shit. Don't become trapped in it.
-Be open-minded. You cannot and will not understand everything in the world. But you cannot understand anything if you are not open to it. Understanding is an important part of functioning. The more familiar you are with yourself, with the people around you, and the general socialogy of the human race, the more content you can be.
-Keep in mind, though, that understanding probably does not lead to being really happy. The only people who are really happy with their lives are those who are naive. Naivety leaves us vunerable, but keeps us ignorant and thus happy. The biggest choice one really has to make is whether it is better to understand things and be cynical and to feel lacking at times, or whether to remain gullible and feel completely content.
-No one has confidence all the time- or if you do, tell me what the hell you do for that. Some people are confident in certain situations, or at certain times in their life, and of course some people are naturally more confident than others. One piece of advice I heard over the years is, "confidence is ignorance- if you're feeling cocky, then it means there's something you don't know." I like this advice, it's practical, true, and has a sense of humour to it.
The truths about individual psychology and collective sociology are ever unfolding, more each day. However, I cannot really see any major fault with this logic above. If you dissent, well, I don't really care because let's be honest- I'm a senior in high school, writing a bloge at 1:30 am because there's nothing else better to do, and if you are becoming really angry with it, you should probably look closely at yourself and at fact number one.
So, um, thanks for listening folks. And if you really care, do comment, because I sort of miss recieving comments.
Saturday, December 17, 2005
Thursday, December 15, 2005
The Great Divide
Note: this is what happens at 1:30 in the morning when you cannot sleep.
No doubt there are many tales in the annals of Magnificat High School. Whether tales of woe (which usually are followed with the slable "jo") or joy, there is none quite so interesting and ironic as the civil war known as history.
I'm not talking about the actual Civil War. Please- that was anything but Civil. Nay, this war of which I speak is not fought out with guns and ammo (of course not. We're a bunch of magnifigirls. If we fought at all it would be with rumours, bitchy comments, and hair-pulling) (alright, granted, that sounds a bit like the government today, but let's not confuse things) and indeed is not a violent war at all. However, it is something which brings to loggerheads two diametrically opposed opionions, these being on the better of the United States History teachers.
(Of course, Komo is not a part of this. Komo is, and always will be, evil. But that's am atter of the world history stuednts, and no doubt there is some sophomore currently in that strife who can tell you that tale)
There are those who wouldn't ocnsider it a war at all. Indeed, it is mostly between the two AP classes that this faction exsists at all. I, as a member of APUSH section one, am of course for the side of Visgak. D. Vis. The name that sounds like a disease, according to Nina. (okay, that's a bit out of context- but you had to be there) Section Two has Giliotti (can I spell that? negative. Can and of section two spell visgak? doubt it) as their leader.
Though this debate does not by any means take up all our free time, (my god, we have boys for that) it is reasonable to judge that at some point during the day, there are those who will get into an argument (or perhaps disagreement) about the superiourity of their teacher. Perhaps you thought I exageratted when I called this a war- but no, indeed, there is fierce loalty to each side. I have debated with my fair share of section two students. While most of them are not as vehement in their beliefs (or we can just be honest and admit that I am a much more overbearing person than either Elaine or KatieSpi) there is no doubt still loyalty to their section.
(Mind you, there are also people in either class that frankly don't give a damn either way. Realy this was is like any other- 1/3 for one side, 1/3 for another, 1/3 with completely apathy no matter what the outcome. Because we have to be honest with ourselves again- some poeple just don't like History, and thus do not care)
I can only give my perspective as a Visgak student. We love coming to class. It's very sad that most of the people I talk to agree that it and Mrs. Neville's class are about the only ones worth attending anymore. (We are seniors, and we all have senioritis, and we all firmly believe that as seniors we should a) do no work and b) not have to attend class) We come everyday, usually to pick up where some exciting cliffhanger left off. We are drawn into history, and it's always rather interesting as class usually begins "well now it's [insert year here]", which puts us right into that year. Not to mention, there is the wit and wisdom of D. vis. Basically, we come for the history but stay for the entertainment. Several students (yes, I am one of them) record the insights to life we receive daily in our history notes. I know mine are littered with knowledge such as, "Life isn't a Burger King- You Can't Always Have it Your Way", and, "There are a lot of Mexicans in Mexico." Also adding to the interest of the class are its pupils, such as Ros, "What's the difference between Frederick Douglass and Stephen Douglas?" (if you knew anything about history, you'd know that that is a rather significant mistake to make) or Nina's usual troublemaking, "you only look cute when people cannot see you"
These elements, combined with mrs. visgak's (does anyone actually call her mrs.? I think most use that sort of slurred ms., though the title general seems more apt) love for Andrew Jackson and Polk (and Caitlin's fatal mistake of asking what he ever did) make our class by far the best.
Gillioti's class will maintain that "giggles' is also amusing. They state that she is interesting as well. But they don't know what they're missing. They just don't understand what real history is like. They just don't appreciate Andrew Jackson like we do.
I have spent the last three days reading five chapters worth of History. I have the midterm for it on Monday. I am coming down with the flu, only my body doesn't want to accept that fact because it got a flu shot, and it cannot decide what to do. I have gotten about 14 hours of sleep all week, most of that during Chem class. I made Miguel teach me to do redox reactions. I am losing my mind. It's 1:30 (well, it was when I started- it's 1:58 now) in the morning, and I got inspired to write this. Tomorrow I will probably ask myself, "what in the hell were you thinking?" But until then, goodnight and goodluck.
No doubt there are many tales in the annals of Magnificat High School. Whether tales of woe (which usually are followed with the slable "jo") or joy, there is none quite so interesting and ironic as the civil war known as history.
I'm not talking about the actual Civil War. Please- that was anything but Civil. Nay, this war of which I speak is not fought out with guns and ammo (of course not. We're a bunch of magnifigirls. If we fought at all it would be with rumours, bitchy comments, and hair-pulling) (alright, granted, that sounds a bit like the government today, but let's not confuse things) and indeed is not a violent war at all. However, it is something which brings to loggerheads two diametrically opposed opionions, these being on the better of the United States History teachers.
(Of course, Komo is not a part of this. Komo is, and always will be, evil. But that's am atter of the world history stuednts, and no doubt there is some sophomore currently in that strife who can tell you that tale)
There are those who wouldn't ocnsider it a war at all. Indeed, it is mostly between the two AP classes that this faction exsists at all. I, as a member of APUSH section one, am of course for the side of Visgak. D. Vis. The name that sounds like a disease, according to Nina. (okay, that's a bit out of context- but you had to be there) Section Two has Giliotti (can I spell that? negative. Can and of section two spell visgak? doubt it) as their leader.
Though this debate does not by any means take up all our free time, (my god, we have boys for that) it is reasonable to judge that at some point during the day, there are those who will get into an argument (or perhaps disagreement) about the superiourity of their teacher. Perhaps you thought I exageratted when I called this a war- but no, indeed, there is fierce loalty to each side. I have debated with my fair share of section two students. While most of them are not as vehement in their beliefs (or we can just be honest and admit that I am a much more overbearing person than either Elaine or KatieSpi) there is no doubt still loyalty to their section.
(Mind you, there are also people in either class that frankly don't give a damn either way. Realy this was is like any other- 1/3 for one side, 1/3 for another, 1/3 with completely apathy no matter what the outcome. Because we have to be honest with ourselves again- some poeple just don't like History, and thus do not care)
I can only give my perspective as a Visgak student. We love coming to class. It's very sad that most of the people I talk to agree that it and Mrs. Neville's class are about the only ones worth attending anymore. (We are seniors, and we all have senioritis, and we all firmly believe that as seniors we should a) do no work and b) not have to attend class) We come everyday, usually to pick up where some exciting cliffhanger left off. We are drawn into history, and it's always rather interesting as class usually begins "well now it's [insert year here]", which puts us right into that year. Not to mention, there is the wit and wisdom of D. vis. Basically, we come for the history but stay for the entertainment. Several students (yes, I am one of them) record the insights to life we receive daily in our history notes. I know mine are littered with knowledge such as, "Life isn't a Burger King- You Can't Always Have it Your Way", and, "There are a lot of Mexicans in Mexico." Also adding to the interest of the class are its pupils, such as Ros, "What's the difference between Frederick Douglass and Stephen Douglas?" (if you knew anything about history, you'd know that that is a rather significant mistake to make) or Nina's usual troublemaking, "you only look cute when people cannot see you"
These elements, combined with mrs. visgak's (does anyone actually call her mrs.? I think most use that sort of slurred ms., though the title general seems more apt) love for Andrew Jackson and Polk (and Caitlin's fatal mistake of asking what he ever did) make our class by far the best.
Gillioti's class will maintain that "giggles' is also amusing. They state that she is interesting as well. But they don't know what they're missing. They just don't understand what real history is like. They just don't appreciate Andrew Jackson like we do.
I have spent the last three days reading five chapters worth of History. I have the midterm for it on Monday. I am coming down with the flu, only my body doesn't want to accept that fact because it got a flu shot, and it cannot decide what to do. I have gotten about 14 hours of sleep all week, most of that during Chem class. I made Miguel teach me to do redox reactions. I am losing my mind. It's 1:30 (well, it was when I started- it's 1:58 now) in the morning, and I got inspired to write this. Tomorrow I will probably ask myself, "what in the hell were you thinking?" But until then, goodnight and goodluck.