It can be scary, but it can also be great

During our class on monday, I realized just how far I've come in life and how far I still have to go. We were taken out onto the football field and told to stand on the yard line that represents our age. As I gazed down to the goal line, it didn't look that far away, but as I gazed forward, I saw just how far I still have to go. Being a 17 year-old, I feel like I'm old and I feel like I've already accomplished a lot, but after seeing how many more yards I still have to go, I realize that I have so much more to offer the world and I'm not even close to where I will be in the future.

In Siddartha, Siddartha has come to feel trapped at his yard-line. His mind and curiosity represents that of an older yard-line and not the one he is currently at. So he decides to embark on a journey of independence on his own. Siddartha is a lot like high school seniors in a sense that they want to go out into the real world and separate from their parents in order to gain a sense of how the real world works. There's only so much that teachers, parents and books can teach us. There comes a point in everyone's life where it's time for them to go and experience the real world first-hand. Living at the 17 and 18 yard-line is safe, not much can happen to you there. But as you go forward, the chances of something happening increase significantly. It can be success or it can be failure, but it's from those experiences that you learn how life in the real-world works. Everyone needs to take that step forward at some point in their life. Physically you don't have a choice because age is something you cannot control. No matter what you do, every year you will move one yard forward. Mentally, though, it is something you can control. Not everyone's mental yard-line represents their physical yard-line. At some point in life, though, everyone needs to take that mental one yard step forward and into the life of independence where anything can happen. It can be scary, but it can also be great.

After living through just about 1/4 of my life, it's time for me to go out into the world on my own and to experience the real-world and college life, independently. I'm standing on the 17 yard line, almost at the 18 yard line ready to make the leap forward into the world of independence.

The Double S: Seniors and Siddartha

Today we are to being a book entitled Siddartha. From what I understand the book to be about, it will have to do a lot with what we, as seniors, are going through. I haven't started the book yet, but by hearing Mr. Burke give an overview of the story, I can see how high school seniors are easily able to relate to the story.

As seniors, it's a known fact that we are ready to graduate. It's no secret that since after day #2 of school, we were ready for graduation to come and for school to end. We love our teachers, our families, and our friends, but we all know that at this point in our life, it's time for us to move on. Siddartha, like many seniors, chooses to experience life for himself and goes on a journey of his own. Seniors are like Siddartha, because just like him, we are ready to experience life for ourselves. Sometimes it's what our parents want and other times it isn't, but at this point in our life it really isn't up to what our parents want anymore. It's time for us to make our own choices and to fail or succeed on our own. If we aren't able to do that, then it will be impossible for us to learn things on our own.

I appreciate everything that my teachers and family has done for me throughout the years and it's not a negative thing when I say, "I'm ready to move on and get out of here." It's just that at this point in my life I feel that the right thing to do is to go experience life for myself.

Things Haven't Changed As Much As We Think They Have

As one of our assignments in english class, we were given the task to write an analytical paragraph comparing and contrasting Laertes, Hamlet, Ophelia, and Fortinbras. As I was writing this, I noticed that while all the males are tough and quick to act with muscles, the only girl, Ophelia, is the opposite of that. Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras all try to avenge their father's death, but Ophelia doesn't. Being in the feminist group for our group projects on Hamlet, has also given me perspective on the way women are treated in the play. They are protrayed as weak and as people who are easily controlled by the men in the play.

From my experience as being a women, I've realized that though some things about the treatment of women have changed, a lot haven't. Women do have a lot more rights now than they did back in the time Hamlet was writen, but there are still a lot of things that differ between men and women. For example, if there were to be a draft for the military, only men would be drafted, not women. Also, it's a known fact that as a man, you just don't hit a woman. Last night my guy friend and I were joking around and I was trying to get him to fight and though he said yes at first, about 12 seconds later he admitted that he could never hit a girl. Any time a guy hits a girl, he immediately puts a target on himself because it's just something you don't do. Also, in my family and other families I know, there are double standards. While the men can usually do whatever they want, the women always have to be a lot more careful than the men and are protected a lot more than the men for fear that something might happen to them.

Yes women have gotten the right to vote and yes there is a lot more equality between women and men, but no it isn't completely equal and I don't think it ever will be. There will always be double standards and there will always be differences between men and women, because let's face it there ARE differences between men and women, both physical and mental. Girls and boys are brought up differently and are conditioned differently. People won't describe a girl as big and muscular and a guy as weak and emotional because that is not what the universal belief is. In the future it may change, but I don't think it will.

You Can Only Control Your Own Life

As we read Hamlet in class, we are forced to examine our own lives in comparison to Hamlet because of the fact that we, as teenagers, are going through a lot of the same things that the characters face in the play. We are at a crossroad right now trying to choose between doing something for oursevles that we want to do, or pleasing our parents and doing something they want us to do. As we go through our journey of leaving home and as we choose a path on which to live, we may find ourselves a changed person, just as Hamlet and Ophelia have changed throughout the course of the play. Are these changes good, or will we be worse off from changing?

As it stands now, people in high school are changing, for better and worse. People are making new friends and older friends are being left out. Everyone has a right to change whether it's for the best or worst. If it's for the best, then they've chosen the right path, if it's for the worst, then it's their mistake to make. We cannot control everyone and it's inevitable that people will change and grow apart. At the end of the school year, though, we will all be on our way to college, forever changing our lives, hopefully in the best way. Some friends will grow apart and others will stay friends forever. Growing and changing is a part of life and no one and nothing can change that. You can only control your own life and as much as you may want to, you can't control the lives of others.

Though our changes and future may be vastly different from what Hamlet and Ophelia go through in Hamlet, the messages are similar. Because of certain experiences and reasons, people will change, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. No matter what, though, you can't control them as much as you may want to sometimes. People must live their own lives and learn from their own mistakes if they make them. The only thing you can do is be yourself and live your life they way you want to.