Inspiration always seems to strike me at obscure hours of the night. It's 4 am and for some reason it'll have a different time stamp when I post this, but whatever. I almost posted this on my other blog - that one is mostly nonsense where as this one is where I try to address issues in society that bug me - but I think this post will work well on this blog.
I know a lot of people have differing opinions on whether or not teenagers should get jobs. I also know that there are a lot of places of employment that prefer not to hire teenagers. I, for one, think that's silly.
I've heard people say that teenagers should have jobs because they're irresponsible. But here's what I want to know...how the hell are we supposed to learn how to be responsible if we never get a chance to try?
A really good example of this is myself compared to my twin brother. His name is Liam and aside from one summer he spend painting a house for a family friend, he's never had a job. I on the other hand, have been working since I was 15. Not excessive hours or demanding labor, but I've had consistent employment. My first job was teaching dance at a local studio, I worked there for three years and just this past year was hired by a new studio. I also worked as a nanny last summer and was offered the position again this summer but I turned it down. More recently I got my lifeguard certification and have already worked a week at a camp and just today was hired to guard at my school's pool as well as to do another week at the camp.
The differences between Liam and I are small, but important. I do better in school - I graduated with honors, he did not. I have a clean room, he does not. I do my own laundry, he does not. It's little responsibility type things here and there where the differences lie. You could easily make the argument that it's just because he's a boy and I'm a girl, but we used to be much more similar - both irresponsible. And then I got my first job where I was required to open and close a business all by myself, deal with parent's question and concerns all by myself, teach several classes of dancers all by myself and choreograph routines all by myself. I had to learn responsibility and it translated into other sectors of my life.
So when I hear people who don't like the idea of teenagers having jobs, it's drives me nuts. The best thing for a teenager is a job. I'm kind of an expert on being a teenager and believe me, we could all use a little more responsibility.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Milestones
A massive part of a teenager's coming of age journey is their graduation from high school. For many, it signifies the beginning of them becoming independent. If the future holds a college degree, then there are about three months standing between a new graduate and freedom. If the future holds a direct path to a job then independence may come even sooner. Regardless, a high school degree guarantees that you will never again be forced to appear to school at 8 am and absorb knowledge until 3 pm. You're free baby!
I graduated just over a week ago, and let me tell you what, I can't be happier that it's over. My senior year was a drag, but that's a whole other story. It went slow though, guys, real slow. But now I am officially a high school graduate. Whoopee!
It's funny though, while I definitely had been counting down the days until graduation since about November, I feel like it wasn't such a great feat. Not at any point in my life did anybody think I wouldn't make it. I'm a pretty straight laced kid. I graduated with honors, ranked 10th in my class of 163. I managed education and extracurriculars and I've had a job since I was 15. Both of my parents went to college, as did three of my four grandparents and my dad has a masters degree. It was always kind of expected that I would graduate and I never did anything to cause any doubt.
So although it's a milestone that I graduated, and it was certainly an exciting event, I'm not the one who needs praise here. I want to give a shout out to the girl in my class who had a baby last summer and has managed to come to school every day in addition to working to provide for her baby. Way to go! There were also two guys who graduated who I didn't think were because I hadn't seen them in school all year. It turns out they were working full time jobs, and one of them has a child. I don't know what kind of program they went through to get the right course credits, but they did, and I think they should be proud. There's another kid who ran away two years ago and was completely AWOL for about four months. He's back, he straightened himself out, and he graduated. High five.
I don't write any of this to put these people down. I sincerely think that they've done a great job. It's easy to manage high school if that's the only thing you have to manage. But when the other stuff comes along and threatens to get in the way yet you persevere anyway, that's impressive.
Class of 2013, you done good.
I graduated just over a week ago, and let me tell you what, I can't be happier that it's over. My senior year was a drag, but that's a whole other story. It went slow though, guys, real slow. But now I am officially a high school graduate. Whoopee!
It's funny though, while I definitely had been counting down the days until graduation since about November, I feel like it wasn't such a great feat. Not at any point in my life did anybody think I wouldn't make it. I'm a pretty straight laced kid. I graduated with honors, ranked 10th in my class of 163. I managed education and extracurriculars and I've had a job since I was 15. Both of my parents went to college, as did three of my four grandparents and my dad has a masters degree. It was always kind of expected that I would graduate and I never did anything to cause any doubt.
So although it's a milestone that I graduated, and it was certainly an exciting event, I'm not the one who needs praise here. I want to give a shout out to the girl in my class who had a baby last summer and has managed to come to school every day in addition to working to provide for her baby. Way to go! There were also two guys who graduated who I didn't think were because I hadn't seen them in school all year. It turns out they were working full time jobs, and one of them has a child. I don't know what kind of program they went through to get the right course credits, but they did, and I think they should be proud. There's another kid who ran away two years ago and was completely AWOL for about four months. He's back, he straightened himself out, and he graduated. High five.
I don't write any of this to put these people down. I sincerely think that they've done a great job. It's easy to manage high school if that's the only thing you have to manage. But when the other stuff comes along and threatens to get in the way yet you persevere anyway, that's impressive.
Class of 2013, you done good.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Let's Be Good People
My generation gets a lot of crap for being losers. And while I agree that the many of my peers have terrible work ethics, less than satisfactory decision making capabilities and a severe case of the "me me me" disease, I think a lot of that is due to the standards we're held to.
The inspiration for this post is a quote I saw online that eluded to the fact that the blame for any suckiness that may exist in my generation should be blamed on the generation before us, our parents, for the way they raised us. My first thought is that that's such typical behavior, a refusal to take responsibility. Nice work friends. But at the same time, it makes me wonder what would be different about the whole situation if we were, as an entire generation, held to higher standards.
The dance studio where I work recently had their recital. That night I gave all my dancers hand-written notes, just congratulating them on the year and thanking them for the experiences I've had with them. The next day I got this email from one of the moms:
I just want to say you have been such a great role model for the dance girls. You were tough when needed and I appreciate you holding them to high standards, good work ethic, timeliness, and discipline. We need more of this for the young generation!! Thank you for taking the time for writing an individual note to each girl. Alex was so touched and literally bawled her way through it. You had an impact on her! Thanks for supporting her!!
The studio just opened this year and the majority of my students had danced before at a studio I, myself, trained at when I was younger. When they started class with me my expectations were so much higher than they had ever been used to, and because I knew the environment where they were coming from, I knew that they would be totally overwhelmed by my demands.
But guess what.
It took about a month, but eventually they got used to me. And they began to excel. As stated in the email, I expected the girls to come to class on time, to be prepared to work, and to never half-ass anything. If they missed a class and thus missed new choreography, they knew they were supposed to be caught up on whatever they missed before the next class - I would not re-teach anything, I would always answer any questions though.
I take full responsibility for making almost all of the girls cry at least once. And while it breaks my heart to see my girls unhappy in the environment I provide, I know at the end of the day it's what they need. Me letting it slide when they arrive 15 minutes late to a rehearsal the week before a competition is not going to do them any good.
My point is, that higher expectations reap more beneficial rewards. Raising the bar might make some people upset to begin with, but my goal is never to make everyone happy all the time - in the studio and in real life - my goal is to do my part in making things better. If that was everybody's motivation I'd be interested to see what kind of comments would be made about my generation.
At the end of the day, expectations are a significant indicator of what will actually happen. So raise your expectations of yourself and the people around you, and let's make this world a rockin' place to be.
The inspiration for this post is a quote I saw online that eluded to the fact that the blame for any suckiness that may exist in my generation should be blamed on the generation before us, our parents, for the way they raised us. My first thought is that that's such typical behavior, a refusal to take responsibility. Nice work friends. But at the same time, it makes me wonder what would be different about the whole situation if we were, as an entire generation, held to higher standards.
The dance studio where I work recently had their recital. That night I gave all my dancers hand-written notes, just congratulating them on the year and thanking them for the experiences I've had with them. The next day I got this email from one of the moms:
I just want to say you have been such a great role model for the dance girls. You were tough when needed and I appreciate you holding them to high standards, good work ethic, timeliness, and discipline. We need more of this for the young generation!! Thank you for taking the time for writing an individual note to each girl. Alex was so touched and literally bawled her way through it. You had an impact on her! Thanks for supporting her!!
The studio just opened this year and the majority of my students had danced before at a studio I, myself, trained at when I was younger. When they started class with me my expectations were so much higher than they had ever been used to, and because I knew the environment where they were coming from, I knew that they would be totally overwhelmed by my demands.
But guess what.
It took about a month, but eventually they got used to me. And they began to excel. As stated in the email, I expected the girls to come to class on time, to be prepared to work, and to never half-ass anything. If they missed a class and thus missed new choreography, they knew they were supposed to be caught up on whatever they missed before the next class - I would not re-teach anything, I would always answer any questions though.
I take full responsibility for making almost all of the girls cry at least once. And while it breaks my heart to see my girls unhappy in the environment I provide, I know at the end of the day it's what they need. Me letting it slide when they arrive 15 minutes late to a rehearsal the week before a competition is not going to do them any good.
My point is, that higher expectations reap more beneficial rewards. Raising the bar might make some people upset to begin with, but my goal is never to make everyone happy all the time - in the studio and in real life - my goal is to do my part in making things better. If that was everybody's motivation I'd be interested to see what kind of comments would be made about my generation.
At the end of the day, expectations are a significant indicator of what will actually happen. So raise your expectations of yourself and the people around you, and let's make this world a rockin' place to be.
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Student Loans Ain't Welcome Here
Let's talk about spending money. Specifically, spending money we don't have. Even more specifically, spending money we don't have on college. Because I have a unique situation and I'd like to talk about it.
Student loans are, for most people, inevitable. Chances are that you want to go to college but you don't have $100,000 waiting around for a good cause. So what do you do? You take out a student loan. And then one day you're 35 years old and you literally still paying for a decision you made when you were 18. Doesn't that sound like the kind of thing our parents always tell us not to do..."Don't get that tramp stamp, you'll regret it when you're forty"..."Don't take out that loan, you'll be stuck with it forever". And the thing is, you actually will be stuck with it forever. Student loans are unique. They are completely interest free until 9 (I think?) months after you graduate. This means two things; A) If you plan on doing post grad work, don't wait. The loans will roll-over unless you take time off, in which case you'll have to start paying for them, which will be difficult if you're still in school. And B) You should put all extra money (once basic living expenses are taken care of) into paying off as much of your loan as possible within those first 9 (?) months because the lower the loan is once interest kicks in, the less extra money you'll end up paying.
So, why do I not have to worry about this?
I got a NROTC scholarship. If you don't know what that is, it stands for Reserve Officer Training Corps. It is a full tuition scholarship where the Military, in my case the Navy - that's where the "N" comes from - pays for your schooling and in return you owe service upon graduation. I don't want to get into too specific detail right now because I'm not 100% sure of all my facts, but I'll talk about it more in the upcoming year once everything gets rolling.
So that takes care of my tuition, but there's more. I have a twin brother and he also won't have to pay for college. My parents must be the happiest people in the world. Liam is going to West Point, the Army academy. I know right, Army v Navy, ironic. So we're both set.
I can't advise anyone whether or not they should try for an ROTC scholarship or academy appointment as that's a very personal decision. I can tell you, though, that if you are interested, get your act together. Applying for a ROTC scholarship is extremely involved and from what I saw with Liam, trying to get an Academy appointment is even worse.
One important thing to note! The NROTC website will tell you that the application isn't due until the end of January 2014 for fall 2014 scholarship applicants. While that is true, get it in sooner! I filled out most of my application in October and received a call from the local Navy personnel wanting me to schedule my interview that week. The interview is part of applying but what I didn't realize is that the reason they reached out to me was because they liked what they saw so far on my application and wanted me to get it in that night so I could be included in the first round of decisions, during which it's easier to get a scholarship because they're all still available. I got home from my interview at 4:00 pm...they gave me until 8:00 pm that night to write three essays. Talk about time crunch. But I did it, I got it, and I'm very excited to see what happens next.
Student loans are, for most people, inevitable. Chances are that you want to go to college but you don't have $100,000 waiting around for a good cause. So what do you do? You take out a student loan. And then one day you're 35 years old and you literally still paying for a decision you made when you were 18. Doesn't that sound like the kind of thing our parents always tell us not to do..."Don't get that tramp stamp, you'll regret it when you're forty"..."Don't take out that loan, you'll be stuck with it forever". And the thing is, you actually will be stuck with it forever. Student loans are unique. They are completely interest free until 9 (I think?) months after you graduate. This means two things; A) If you plan on doing post grad work, don't wait. The loans will roll-over unless you take time off, in which case you'll have to start paying for them, which will be difficult if you're still in school. And B) You should put all extra money (once basic living expenses are taken care of) into paying off as much of your loan as possible within those first 9 (?) months because the lower the loan is once interest kicks in, the less extra money you'll end up paying.
So, why do I not have to worry about this?
I got a NROTC scholarship. If you don't know what that is, it stands for Reserve Officer Training Corps. It is a full tuition scholarship where the Military, in my case the Navy - that's where the "N" comes from - pays for your schooling and in return you owe service upon graduation. I don't want to get into too specific detail right now because I'm not 100% sure of all my facts, but I'll talk about it more in the upcoming year once everything gets rolling.
So that takes care of my tuition, but there's more. I have a twin brother and he also won't have to pay for college. My parents must be the happiest people in the world. Liam is going to West Point, the Army academy. I know right, Army v Navy, ironic. So we're both set.
I can't advise anyone whether or not they should try for an ROTC scholarship or academy appointment as that's a very personal decision. I can tell you, though, that if you are interested, get your act together. Applying for a ROTC scholarship is extremely involved and from what I saw with Liam, trying to get an Academy appointment is even worse.
One important thing to note! The NROTC website will tell you that the application isn't due until the end of January 2014 for fall 2014 scholarship applicants. While that is true, get it in sooner! I filled out most of my application in October and received a call from the local Navy personnel wanting me to schedule my interview that week. The interview is part of applying but what I didn't realize is that the reason they reached out to me was because they liked what they saw so far on my application and wanted me to get it in that night so I could be included in the first round of decisions, during which it's easier to get a scholarship because they're all still available. I got home from my interview at 4:00 pm...they gave me until 8:00 pm that night to write three essays. Talk about time crunch. But I did it, I got it, and I'm very excited to see what happens next.
Thursday, May 9, 2013
The Economics of Prom
As I mentioned in my first post, I'm taking an honors economic course this year. I find it really interesting and I enjoy most of the debates we have in the class. A couple of weeks ago we had our senior prom, and in class our teacher had us go over the economics of how much prom costs to each individual. It was actually pretty interesting, I'll break it down for you.
Our teacher defined the "cost" of prom as anything that we wouldn't have to pay for if we weren't going. For boys the standard list consisted of the tickets, a tux rental, flowers, dinner, and transportation. The girls' list was a little more involved, depending on how high maintenance the girl was. The all encompassing list was, a dress, shoes, hair, makeup, nails, flowers, tanning and tickets depending on whether or not they had a date. I was definitely more on the low maintenance end of that spectrum.
The class average cost came in just under $300, which our teacher said was lower than the usual class averages. He'd only done it with one other class at that point and their average was almost $500.
Now I'll go over how much I spent:
Dress: I bought my dress on ebay. It was brand new, still with tags, and 100% silk. The tag said $600, I got it for $10. I'm a pro. It was floor length but I hate floor length dresses so I got mine shortened to tea length. Alterations cost $50.
Shoes: $20. I also got a free chip clip with the purchase because I could answer the trivia question (what is the plastic thing on the end of the shoelace called - an aglet).
Tickets: $70. I did have a date but he doesn't go to my school so I had to buy the tickets, which were $35 each. Jon did offer to pay, but I told him he didn't have to since it was my prom.
That's it. I didn't go tanning because it's terrible for you and doesn't even look nice anyway. I did my own hair, makeup and nails. I didn't buy Jon a boutonniere because I didn't think he was buying me a corsage. I told him not to because I don't think he should have to pay for something that's already dead and I'm inevitably going to lose somewhere. He got me one anyway though, and it actually matched my dress perfectly even though he hadn't seen it before, which was really sweet (and it made it home safely! It's currently in the fridge next to some yogurt).
With tickets my total was $150, without it was $80 (because in a hypothetical world Jon would have paid). $80 was the cheapest in the class, $150 was second cheapest. I win.
Some people spend entirely too much on prom. There were two girls in my class who paid near about $600 - and they didn't even have to buy their tickets! Maybe I'm just a cheapskate, but seriously, I had just as much fun - maybe more - than people who spent their whole life savings.
Our teacher defined the "cost" of prom as anything that we wouldn't have to pay for if we weren't going. For boys the standard list consisted of the tickets, a tux rental, flowers, dinner, and transportation. The girls' list was a little more involved, depending on how high maintenance the girl was. The all encompassing list was, a dress, shoes, hair, makeup, nails, flowers, tanning and tickets depending on whether or not they had a date. I was definitely more on the low maintenance end of that spectrum.
The class average cost came in just under $300, which our teacher said was lower than the usual class averages. He'd only done it with one other class at that point and their average was almost $500.
Now I'll go over how much I spent:
Dress: I bought my dress on ebay. It was brand new, still with tags, and 100% silk. The tag said $600, I got it for $10. I'm a pro. It was floor length but I hate floor length dresses so I got mine shortened to tea length. Alterations cost $50.
Shoes: $20. I also got a free chip clip with the purchase because I could answer the trivia question (what is the plastic thing on the end of the shoelace called - an aglet).
Tickets: $70. I did have a date but he doesn't go to my school so I had to buy the tickets, which were $35 each. Jon did offer to pay, but I told him he didn't have to since it was my prom.
That's it. I didn't go tanning because it's terrible for you and doesn't even look nice anyway. I did my own hair, makeup and nails. I didn't buy Jon a boutonniere because I didn't think he was buying me a corsage. I told him not to because I don't think he should have to pay for something that's already dead and I'm inevitably going to lose somewhere. He got me one anyway though, and it actually matched my dress perfectly even though he hadn't seen it before, which was really sweet (and it made it home safely! It's currently in the fridge next to some yogurt).
With tickets my total was $150, without it was $80 (because in a hypothetical world Jon would have paid). $80 was the cheapest in the class, $150 was second cheapest. I win.
Some people spend entirely too much on prom. There were two girls in my class who paid near about $600 - and they didn't even have to buy their tickets! Maybe I'm just a cheapskate, but seriously, I had just as much fun - maybe more - than people who spent their whole life savings.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Not Sleepy Chatter
Let's talk. It's just after 2 a.m. and I'm not sleepy and it's rather annoying. so I'm just gonna ramble on until the tiny font and today's country on Pandora put me to sleep. How's that sound?
I have find of ideas for this blog but the challenge is actually sitting down to write about them. You see, I have two large problems getting in my way. Number one is that I'm a senior in high school and I'm super busy with end of the year stuff as well as various extracurriculars. Number two is that I have an extreme problem with procrastination. Like, it's a serious issue. Oh well. Nobody is perfect.
I'm super thrilled to be graduating, but I've noticed some things that don't make sense to me. Most importantly, why is the graduation ceremony such a big deal to people other than the graduates? I'll elaborate. At my school each graduate gets four seat tickets for family and/or friends. People without tickets are welcome, of course, they just have to stand. But anyway, I have a twin brother so my family gets twice the tickets. Obviously Liam and I don't need a ticket, but three of them will be used by our mom, dad and younger brother. That leaves five tickets left over, and there honestly isn't anyone else that I want to invite.
Only my dad's mom is still living but we don't see her too often and I don't know what she's planning on doing. Both of my maternal grandparents are alive, though, and they're being kind of obsessive about it. We've had some days off due to weather and apparently my pop has been calling the school on a regular basis to keep up with the changing graduation date. And here's the thing...I don't want them to come!
Call me heartless, whatever. My pop really doesn't like me and I'm not his biggest fan either. My gram means well but she's a lot to handle sometimes (most of the time). Graduation is supposed to be for me. My grandparents contributed nothing to my success. I got where I am today largely by my own inner drive and always with the love and support of my parents.
So I'm happy to walk across the stadium and collect my diploma (I've actually spent a lot of time debating about whether or not graduation is mandatory. Finally my mom just asked if I would please do it for her. So fine, for her) and I'm happy to pose for pictures with people I've known since preschool and will probably never see again come August. But I'm not going to feel compelled to go home after graduation and hang with my grandparents. Sorry, not gunna happen.
Wow this took a negative turn. When I typed the first words of this blog all I could think about is how the self tanner I put on before bed is giving me a headache. I thought I was going to ramble off about tanning and the tribulations that a pale white, black haired Irish girl faces as summer approaches. Well. Apparently 2 a.m. makes me grumpy.
I have find of ideas for this blog but the challenge is actually sitting down to write about them. You see, I have two large problems getting in my way. Number one is that I'm a senior in high school and I'm super busy with end of the year stuff as well as various extracurriculars. Number two is that I have an extreme problem with procrastination. Like, it's a serious issue. Oh well. Nobody is perfect.
I'm super thrilled to be graduating, but I've noticed some things that don't make sense to me. Most importantly, why is the graduation ceremony such a big deal to people other than the graduates? I'll elaborate. At my school each graduate gets four seat tickets for family and/or friends. People without tickets are welcome, of course, they just have to stand. But anyway, I have a twin brother so my family gets twice the tickets. Obviously Liam and I don't need a ticket, but three of them will be used by our mom, dad and younger brother. That leaves five tickets left over, and there honestly isn't anyone else that I want to invite.
Only my dad's mom is still living but we don't see her too often and I don't know what she's planning on doing. Both of my maternal grandparents are alive, though, and they're being kind of obsessive about it. We've had some days off due to weather and apparently my pop has been calling the school on a regular basis to keep up with the changing graduation date. And here's the thing...I don't want them to come!
Call me heartless, whatever. My pop really doesn't like me and I'm not his biggest fan either. My gram means well but she's a lot to handle sometimes (most of the time). Graduation is supposed to be for me. My grandparents contributed nothing to my success. I got where I am today largely by my own inner drive and always with the love and support of my parents.
So I'm happy to walk across the stadium and collect my diploma (I've actually spent a lot of time debating about whether or not graduation is mandatory. Finally my mom just asked if I would please do it for her. So fine, for her) and I'm happy to pose for pictures with people I've known since preschool and will probably never see again come August. But I'm not going to feel compelled to go home after graduation and hang with my grandparents. Sorry, not gunna happen.
Wow this took a negative turn. When I typed the first words of this blog all I could think about is how the self tanner I put on before bed is giving me a headache. I thought I was going to ramble off about tanning and the tribulations that a pale white, black haired Irish girl faces as summer approaches. Well. Apparently 2 a.m. makes me grumpy.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
New blog, New blog!
This blog was born from a multitude of ideas and efforts; first, my old
blog is dying , second, I am loving my honors economics class and want a
place to write down all my ideas on how to save the world, and third, because humanity can be disappointing and I want a place to remember what I was thinking and when I was thinking it and hopefully someday realize that the problems of 2013 were solved and the world is happy.
Now to explain why all of those things are worthy of a whole entire blog...
I have another blog. It's called Defined by the Dance and you can find it here. It started out as a way to sporadically document my one true passion; dance. Unfortunately, as you can read about because it's all the last few months' posts have featured, I went and fractured bones in each of my feet and I am no longer allowed to dance (for the time being, I am determined to get back as soon as possible!). Read the whole story there, I don't think I need to drag that mess onto this blog, but it's been nearly 8 months of brokenness due to misdiagnosis-es on the doctor's end and refusal to be a good patient on my end. So anyway, without dance in my life the blog kind of doesn't have a point anymore. Enter new blog.
As far as economics goes, I won't get too far into it right now. I will tell you that the class is super interesting and I'm really enjoying it. We have a lot of discussions and we always seem to come up with ideas that could be potential solutions to the state of affairs in the country right now. Like I said, you'll hear plenty of this later.
And one final thing before I sign off: why did I call this blog "Conservatively Optimistic". The conservative part comes largely from my political standpoint, my econ teacher always laughs at how conservative my brother and I are, you'll probably see it as I continue to post things. Then the optimistic at the end is because I think (cautiously) that there is hope for a brighter future. Not tomorrow, and probably not in a year, but I believe we'll get there someday.
Tata for now,
MK
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