Happiness

What makes a person happy? I was reading this article in the New York Times titled, "The Happiest People". The article stated three different ways that rank countries by happiness. The World Database of Happiness (lists countries in order of happiness based on surveys), tracking "happy life years" (scholars that calculate the self-reported happiness from the World Database of Happiness with life expectancy), and Happy Planet Index (combines happiness with longevity and environmental impact), are ways to check out America's happiness. Out of these three lists, the US ranked 14th, 19th, and 114th respectively. But I had to ask myself, are these ways of calculating happiness truly accurate? Do you think people can simply fill out a survey and then scholars can tell if the country is happy? I personally believe that a survey does not do justice to the whole country. I guess what I am saying is that I disagree with these rankings and the ways in which they created them. I don't think happiness is has anything to do with longevity or environmental impact. So, what do you think? How do we, as Americans, measure happiness?

(Image via http://media.photobucket.com/image/happy/boj_ana/happy.jpg)

Young Girl to Woman

During Winter break, my mom and I ventured off to NYC for a short weekend trip. One day we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (aka the Met) and went to an exhibit called American Stories. I was excited because I thought it would be cool to see stories of Americans represented in art and relate it to this class somehow. I was particularly struck by one painting titled "Story of Golden Locks" by Seymour Joseph Guy. It was painted in 1870 and the exhibit called this era, "Stories of War and Reconciliation". The painting depicts a girl reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears to her two young brothers. What I did not catch in the painting was the little doll stuffed in the box on the chair. By reading the summary next to the painting, I read that this showed her advancement from girlhood to womanhood. I thought this connected well into our Women and Children unit we are studying now. But by stuffing her doll into the box shows that she is ready to take on a role as a woman and later on becoming a mother.  I really like how Guy's simple painting has a sentimental feel for young girls who want to assume the role of a woman. What do you think about this painting? When do you think a girl takes on the role to becoming a woman, is it as simple as tucking away your toys and games?

(image via http://www.metmuseum.org/special/americanstories/objectImages/TT.3.14.EL.jpg)

New Year's Resolutions

Every New Year's Eve my family goes around and shares our resolutions for the year. I've never really given much thought to my resolution. It usually ends up that I want to clean my room more often or eat more vegetables, nothing out of the ordinary. I searched New Year's Resolutions and found this list of popular resolutions according to www.usa.gov.

• lose weight

• manage debt
• save money
• get a better job
• get fit 
• get a better education
• drink less alcohol
• quit smoking
• reduce stress

To my knowledge, I've heard that most people who make resolutions do not follow through. Then what's the point? To further prove this, a website confirms that out of a group of 3000 people, only 12% followed through with their resolution. I know that this experiment does not even compare to the number of people in our country but it still is pretty shocking. I never know where to start when coming up with a resolution, but here is one I hope to keep: do not get behind on blogging! What do you think about New Year Resolutions? Did you come up with one this year, if so, what is it?!

Early Admissions

This week, many seniors hear back from a variety of colleges that they applied early for. A New York Times Blog called "The Choice" posted an interesting article about the increase of early application acceptants. I thought it was interesting to read that many schools increased their acceptance numbers early, meaning many more incoming students will be willing to pay tuition early. What happened to the bad economy? I also wondered what the pro's and con's are for early admission since all of us will be going through it next year. My sister applied early decision two years ago and got in. The rest of her senior year she was able to relax and have fun, but still maintain her grades. I really can't think of any con's besides the fact that some early decision schools make an acceptance that is binding. I know that it's kinda early to think about, but it is good to start looking at options! What do you think you will do next year? Do you think applying early is a good idea?

Who's Your Mommy?

I came across an interesting article today about a married couple who were unable to conceive a child. They used both an egg and sperm donor and also a surrogate mother. The strange thing was, she did all of this online. She picked the egg and sperm donors off one website, and the surrogate mother from another. Last July, the twins were born, but they only stayed with the couple who "purchased" them for one month. The police showed up at their Michigan home and took the babies away from them and returned them to the surrogate mother, the one who cared for them for the whole nine months. Turns out, the surrogate mother found out that the adoptive mother had a mental illness and she got a court order to retrieve the babies. The surrogate mom did not want anything bad to happen to the children over the years, so now she is their gaurdian. What about the adoptive mother and father, will they get their money back? I don't think that this is fair, I believe that having a mental illness is not enough to take children away from their mother. Her husband could take care of them if she ever had a relapse. What do you think?

Read the whole article here.

How do YOU Blog?

After reading Mr. O’Connor’s blog on creativity, I found myself thinking about my creative ability and others creativity. Actually, I did not know what to blog about so I am blogging about my lack of creativity this week. A lot of the time I find myself stuck on finding interesting blog topics. I search desperately on news websites and try to get a lead from an article. When I don’t find an interesting article, I try to search in my brain for clever blog topics. Usually it takes a while for it to come up. But other times I know exactly what I’m going to write about. Why? Do you ever seem creative at one point and unimaginative at other points? How do you find blogging topics?

Image via: http://www3.timeoutny.com/newyork/tonyblog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/blog_logo.jpg

Procrastination Station

Last Saturday I shuttled myself off to the library in hopes of finishing all of my weekend homework early. I was very proud of myself because I felt very studious. But somehow, I ended up on Facebook. The whole point of my visit to the library was to not get distracted. So why did I log in??? That’s the one question I have been struggling with throughout high school. Don't get me wrong, Facebook is great, I’m on it everyday. It’s nice to have conversations with your friends and a site to post pictures. However, I think it is always a big time waster. I continue to stuggle with procrastinating and I just log on to Facebook to browse around. I got disappointed with myself because I did not finish all of my homework at the library. If I continue to spend all my precious free time on Facebook, I don't think I will ever learn self-discipline . Do all of you struggle with this too? Is facebook your friend or your foe? I hope to only log on every once in a while now!