Declaration of the Rights of Teenagers

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of God entitle them, a respect to mankind requires that they declare the causes that impel them to such a course.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all people are endowed with certain inalienable rights including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Prudence will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes, but when a long train of abuses and usurpations evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw off such government. Such has been the patient sufferance of teenagers under the adults serving as government.

The history of youth is a history of repeated injuries on the part of adult toward adolescent, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over him. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

They have never permitted the adolescent to remain out of the home past a certain hour, even after he has proven his responsibility.

They have deemed the adolescent lazy when he tries to recuperate from a hard week involving school, extracurricular activities, and social events.

They have refused to give permission to the adolescent for certain activities which would allow for the pursuit of happiness.

They have required the adolescent to attend certain functions which have taken away time from his own needs.

They have seen the adolescent as ignorant or immature, though he understands the limitations of his youth.

They have yelled at the adolescent as they would never yell at a peer.

They have submitted the adolescent to manual labor, commonly referred to as chores, under the pretense that they are superior simply due to advanced age.

Now, in view of the unjust treatments above mentioned and because adolescents do feel themselves oppressed and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States.

Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman is a comic book superhero. She has super-speed, super-strength, and is able to fly. In the television series, Wonder Woman is portrayed by Lynda Carter. But Wonder Woman has had no real impact on my life. I don’t know which villains she fights or even what she stands for. My Wonder Woman is my aunt, Linda Carter.

These two women share more than just a name. They are both superheroes. My aunt doesn’t wear a leotard and cannot fly. She is paralyzed from the waist down because of a sledding accident and lives alone. And yet my aunt is one of the most amazing people I know. She’s always overjoyed to see my family and loves to buy us presents. Linda doesn’t allow herself to wallow in self-pity. She keeps her head up and continues to enjoy life.

The most inspiring thing about my aunt is her perseverance. Though her legs were rendered virtually useless, she has been in physical therapy ever since it occurred, meeting with her trainer at least three times a week. During the meetings, my aunt stretches and stands on crutches. She’s been doing these exercises for almost thirty years and hasn’t made much progress. If I were in her position, I probably would have given up by now. But Linda hasn’t. She’s continued to work and improve, however small the improvements seem to be. Now she is able to walk across a room with her crutches.

My aunt’s recovery has been a difficult journey, but she has still managed to maintain her positive outlook on life. Even though she’s technically “handicapped,” my aunt continues to live life to the fullest. Recently, she bought an Audi convertible. It’s a struggle to fit her wheelchair in the back, but she still loves the car even more than she expected.

My aunt has taught me that I need to accept life’s challenges and see how they can be opportunities to grow. Through all of the struggles that I will face, I need to keep living and taking full advantage of life’s opportunities. Even if they require great effort, I need to learn from all of my experiences and keep moving forward.

The Inner Ring

C.S. Lewis's "The Inner Ring" lecture was actually something that I really enjoyed reading. I didn't expect to, because (as much as I love the movie) reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was not my favorite thing to do. I couldn't even get past the first chapter of some of his other books, so I was wary when I started to read the address.

However, once I got past the excerpt from War and Peace, which was confusing, I found myself really enjoying the speech. (I just completely repeated a sentence from my first paragraph. Sorry.) I can completely relate to his idea about the Inner Ring. It reminded me of "the popular people" at school and within every group that exists. It seems so glamorous and fun to be a part of, but when you reach it you realize that nothing is different from your previous "ring." And in the process of joining the Inner Ring, you most likely alienated a good friend or participated in some actions that you wish you hadn't. The Inner Ring does that to people.

What I don't understand is what makes the Inner Ring so desirable. I think that might be Lewis's point though. There is no reason for us to want to be a part of it, save for making other people jealous. But why are we jealous of the Ring in the first place? And why do we want to make others jealous at all? I'm going to use this post to try and decipher (totally unrelated side note: the CIA has a sculpture called Cryptos that is really cool... Google it) some answers to that question.

Why are we jealous of the Inner Ring? Why is it such a desirable position to hold? The exclusivity is, of course, a main reason. But why is it so great to be exclusive? Making other people jealous, maybe, is our way of making ourselves feel good. Obvioulsy if someone wants to be like we are, then we have some desirable quality about us. It could be our hair, clothes, personality, confidence, or anything else. Maybe that's why, often, the Inner Ring is corrupt in some way. In high school, the popular people usually drink or something. And in business, the "top dogs" usually engage in some scandalous practices. This could be a result of their insecurites. These insecurities can be allievated by making others jealous.

Or maybe we like making people jealous because it makes us feel superior to them. This is also a result of insecurity. People simply like to be the best, and the Inner Ring is the best social circle that exists in school, business, teams, clubs, or any other organization or group.

Anway (not anyways, which is not a word), back to Lewis. I liked the way that he tried to be funny sometimes. It was undersated humor, but that can be the best kind. I wondered, though, if maybe he had ever been excluded from some sort of Inner Ring. Or maybe it happened to him multiple times. He seemed to really hate them, as he explicitly stated. But he might just have been able to see the consequence that Inner Rings have on people. They can, as he says, make "a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things." That is his main purpose in this essay: to show the world that this belief in the supremacy of Inner Rings has no positive consequence. Even those who belong to them are forced to constantly struggle to remain in them. The Rings don't even have any benefit, as Lewis pointed out, but the superiority that comes from belonging is too enjoyable to let go of.

I agree completely with Lewis. Inner Rings are bad. But then again, I'm not really a member of one. Maybe I'm just bitter. Who knows? Or maybe I am part of an Inner Ring and don't even notice it. I think that's possible. Some group could appear to be an Inner Ring to outsiders but not to insiders.

Inner Rings could also relate to Social Darwinism. The "fittest" people would be the members, and the outsiders would be those who aren't evolved enough to be a part of the elite group. But that might be a stretch. And I don't really believe in Social Darwinism anyway.

Anyway, I don't want to turn this into a rant about social heirarchy and how bad it is (though I probably already have).

HAPPY ONE WEEK UNTIL CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! And Happy Hannukah to all of my Jewish friends!

Transcendentalism

TRANSCENDENTALISM. I love it. We studied it in American Lit last year and it was an extremely fun unit! Except... I don't really remember exactly what it was. So I just looked it up, and I was surprised to find that, according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, it was centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson! This actually made me extremely excited, because I love when obscure things from my classes connect to other parts of my life (even though looking up transcendentalism was part of AP Comp, as was reading Emerson.) It was stimulated, apparently, by the Romantic movements in England and Germany, which focused on the beauty of nature and rejected the idea of pure logic and reason that was popularized by the Enlightenment, Biblical criticism, and skepticism. All of this makes me so happy that I took AP Euro, because I actually remember learning about all of this stuff! Transcendentalists criticized the conformity of their society & urged individuals to find their own individual relationship to the world.

So, what do I think about transcendentalism? Well, besides the fact that I love studying it, I think that it's a really cool philosophy to live by. I think that it's great that they believe that everyone has their own individual relationship to the earth. It makes every individual seem very important, but also allows people to see the importance of every other individual, so that even if they do believe in their own importance, they still don't let it get to their heads. Emerson's essay seemed to reflect a lot of the ideals of transcendentalism, especially the idea of individuality, which he calls "self-reliance." In our discussion today, we were talking about the difference between the common use of the term and what Emerson meant by it. In our world today, we think of "self-reliance" as economically and physically supporting oneself. But Emerson meant it more as relying on your own ideas and beliefs, and not feeling the need to conform to what society dictates as right.

I think that idea can really apply to life today, especially as a teenager. In everything from grades to fashion, high schoolers are encouraged to be the same as everyone else. There are those who don't conform to the standards, but most do. And, Emerson would say, this is just destroying their individuality. He encourages people to embrace their own individuality, and also believes that each person has a preordained path that they're supposed to follow. By failing to embrace their own thoughts and opinions, people lose sight of what they're supposed to do (as specified by the Creator.)

Thoreau also had some great ideas that can relate to life today. The idea of simplifying life can completely apply to life today. In the age of electronics, it's easy to get caught up in the latest news, gossip, crises, or technology. But, as Thoreau says in his essay, sometimes all we need to do is focus on one or two things. Then we can really see the true meaning of life, and just live.

I don't really know if this blog post will make sense. It seems kind of disjointed. But isn't that the idea of transcendentalism? Standards don't really matter as long as you stand up for your own ideas. And I think I managed to do that in this blog.

I guess I'll end with a quote that I really like by Thoreau, though it doesn't really relate to this post.

"I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion."

Open Post!

Hey everyone! Today is December 6th, which means that tonight is Jingleball! (It's KDWB's holiday concert.) This year's lineup is fantastic - Justin Bieber, Jordin Sparks, Boys Like Girls, Pitbull, 3OH!3, Colbie Caillait, Jay Sean, and Owl City - and I can't wait! I'm going with Jackie, Elana, and Tayler (from up north). Oh my gosh but we have no clue what we're going to wear so that is a HUGE problem. Anyway, that's all I have to say about that.

Right now my fingers are covered in green marker because I just got back from teaching Sunday School and we had to make ornaments. So, naturally, I had to do all of the tracing, all of the cutting, and most of the gluing for my entire class of 2nd graders. But it was fun and they were better-behaved today than they've ever been in the past.

The main topic of my blog, though, is Tara and Leah! They're two of my closest friends and I promised I'd write a blog about them. I don't really know what to say about them except for that I love them immensely! I hung out with them on Friday night, along with our friends Scott and Andrew. We played Pictionary and Extreme Spoons, plus some ping-pong. But I hate ping-pong because I'm really bad at it, so I mostly just sat there on Leah's exercise ball. Anyway, some fond memories I have of those two would include: 7th and 8th grade musicals at EMS, science class with Tara and Ms. Misuraco (and her pigtails...), health last year with Leah, American Lit with both of them, going to the State Fair, going to the Walker Art Museum (my favorite place in MN), and just hanging out. They always help me with every single problem that I ever have, even though it probably gets really boring to listen to me complain all the time. They say that I'm really negative, which is sort of true.

Anyway, yesterday I took the SAT (and I must say that APUSH vocab was actually helpful... two words were on there and it really helped a lot) which was so boring but useful. I bought my mom a birthday present, too, then went to study math at Karin's house. I didn't really do much studying because I was pretty brain-dead, but I think everyone else got a lot done! After that I went out to Kobe with my family for my mom's birthday, then went to my friend Michelle's house and we just kind of hung out with some of our other friends.

So that's pretty much it. Now I'm going to go do all of my homework for this weekend and for tomorrow, because tomorrow I'm going to bed right after I eat dinner. Happy 19 days until Christmas!