Haitian-Dominicans stripped of their Citizenship. (PB)

http://www.npr.org/2013/11/28/247635908/many-haitians-leave-dominican-republic-after-court-decision

This weeks post will be about something I am passionate about, which is helping causes in hopes of gaining independence.

I have just recently heard of everything going on in my country. Apparently, anyone born after 1929 (basically around my grandma's age) who was born and raised in the Dominican Republic has to leave all that they're known and used to because a new Dominican Court Ruling said so. It bothers me that I can't do anything about this, not because it will affect me personally, but because it is unfair. no matter where you go you are treated unfairly. It is racist and what gets to me is how not many people are really doing something about it except for some of the Dominicans already living here in America. I have a cousin who is half Dominican half Haitian. I don't know her personally, but I wonder how this would be affecting her. I wish I could do something to help out these people, it bothers me I don't know where to begin to help out. It isn't fair, none of this is fair at all.

Deaths of 2013 ...RIP❤️ (SSR)

http://hollywoodlife.com/2013/12/05/paul-walker-nelson-mandela-death-tribute-fans-twitter/

In the amount of one week we lost two good souls. Nelson Mandela not only a man with a good heart, but a leader, a fighter, and man of honor fought against Apartheids Uprising during one of Africa's troubling eras of nonstop turmoil. Nelson was incarcerated for almost 30 years & after he was freed, he became the President of Africa and was was given nothing but respect & appraisal for all he's done for the lives of Africa. Nelson Mandela once said "I'm not a saint, but a sinner who never stops trying." On that note R.I.P. Nelson Mandela.

Another man who lost his life but a well respected actor at that was the Fast & Furious movie series very own Paul Walker. Paul Walker gained fame starring as one of the main cast of the famous Car movies. The Fast & Furious movies were one of my favorite movies and it's sad that he is now gone. Paul Walker was acting prior to making these films and during his spare time he devoted his time to helping others, which is someone who's selflessness is worthy of respect. So, RIP Paul Walker you will be missed as well. 

Another soul lost this year has been Glee's very own Cory Monteith. He was a good actor, funny to watch on my tv every Thursdays, and was one of my favorites as well. RIP Cory <3 

Aside from all the deaths that have occurred this far, I lost my great aunt. Also, a lot of people I know have lost about one or two people close to them. On the behalf of everyone, RIP to all the lives lost in 2013. 

What's Lana Del Ray's National Anthem? (SSR)

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sxDdEPED0h8&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DsxDdEPED0h8

In this video called National Anthem by Lana Del Ray, she reenacts the Assassination of JFK, and portrays herself as Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy. I watched this video, and felt like there was a sort of symbolism behind the video itself. As people may have heard, it has been rumored that Marilyn Monroe and Mr President Kennedy had an affair, from watching this video I feel as though Lana Del Ray doesn't know what kind of woman she is, whether she is the typically known American housewife, or the woman who comes between a man and his wife. I feel like she portrays both women because deep down whatever kind of woman she is, she doesn't want to be left without a man. I chose to talk about this video because this week is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of JFK, and watching the video had me wondering what exactly Lana was trying to portray just from making this video. She sings Mr. President like Marilyn Monroe once did to Kennedy, but then walks out as the First Lady (Jackie Kennedy) beside her Husband (In this case, ASAP Rocky). In conclusion, I feel like Lana Del Ray created this video because she's confused within her own self, she doesn't know if she's either a housewife or a mistress. 

Senior Dedications (FC) 11/6/13

Just recently, most of the seniors had to take part in writing their senior dedications. In a matter of short words, you are asked to write something whether it is a quote, a few words on the behalf of your fellow classmates, or in general how you would like to express your final words for TMA in fine print. I never truly realized how much TMA has changed me. TMA has had it's ups and downs, but it never failed to shed some light on new things. When I first arrived to TMA in the summer going into 7th grade I thought it would be the best experience ever, and then came 7th grade and I basically really disliked my 7th grade year. Then came 8th and 9th grade, it wasn't so bad but I still felt like I hadn't really found my place until 10th grade hit. Things began to change for me in lots of ways and I began to see that TMA wasn't really all that bad, if anything it helped make me the person I am today. Overall, I guess the moral here is that it didn't hit me that I only have about 7 months left in TMA until I had to really sit down and start writing my senior dedications. On that note, I am glad to be apart of Class of 2014.

Family (PB)

I feel passionate about a lot of things, but one thing I never fail to appreciate is family. I am truly passionate about my family. I enjoy spending quality time and appreciating every moment, because those are the most important things in life. I like to think that family isn't just blood, but family are those who I consider of great importance to me. Whether it is a parent, friend, sibling, or overall just a great educator of life, those are the ones who matter most in my life.

I've heard from many teachers before that most of my writing derives from my love for family, which is true. I love my family more than anything, because without them I'd be nothing today. My father always tell me, "I am a man with defects, imperfections, but I never stop seeking perfection. I am human, I'm not perfect, no one is." Its those words from my father that always remind me of where I come from and how I should never forget that where I come from is only the beginning stages of where I think I should be.

I've met a good handful or more of amazing people. It's good to know that those who will help you up when your done are the ones some people to fail to give recognition to when they've made it somewhere far. You never really stop and think about the struggle someone has made just to get you where you need to be, or in their case, where they think you deserve to be. Sometimes the people you fail to recognize are the ones who have motivated and paved the way for you, and still all in all with the way society has grown up to be, we won't ever see that. Family is everything, and without it, we are nothing.

FREEBIE

A Poem I Wrote (FC)

Every time we touch

From the taste of your lips

Every touch running down to my fingertips

My body wants to disintegrate

I can't seem to think straight

I wanna melt in your desires

Indulge myself within your fantasies

I wanna be your every dream ever dreamt

Still after all the time we've spent

I look at you and get butterflies

Like at 5am watching the sunrise

Every look ever looked is the same as day 1

But in the end I'm the one who won

I have you, I love you, your all that I could have ever wanted and more

I will always love you And as Pooh says

"If You live to be 100

I hope to live 100 minus 1 day

So I never have to live without you"

One of My Favorite Books (SSR)

One of my favorite books that I read a couple of years back would be an autobiography called The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to his White Mother by James McBride. I remember reading this book in the 7th grade, when my sister had just finished reading it in high school. The book talks about a boy who grew up in a neighborhood and time period where having a white mother or having some portion of white ancestry while still being an African American was seen as odd to many people. James' mother was a Jewish woman born and raised in Suffolk, Virginia where she came from a strict Jewish home that forbid her from having relations with some races, including Black. James grew up always feeling as if he was different and he was always fearful of his mother for some reason, but as he got older he felt like he didn't know her. His mother was very quiet about her life and was sort of mysterious about her past. James' mother had a past where she had a relationship with a black man (which was unheard of in 1942) & she got pregnant by him. She kept the pregnancy a secret and had to run away from home to an aunt in New York when her mother found out. She ended up aborting the unborn child, but married a black man named Andrew McBride. Ruth & Andrew had 8 kids together, but by the time Ruth could deliver her last child from him (James), health complications (lung cancer) occurred and he died, leaving Ruth in turmoil and suffrage on raising 8 children by herself. She later remarried another black man named Hunter Jordan, whom she had 4 more children with, giving James a father figure to look up to. Health complications occurred to his step father and soon after he died as well. This left James feeling lost like his mother had felt after she lost her first husband. The book alternates between chapters from James point of view of his upbringing from childhood to adulthood, & his mother to his mothers point of view of her own personal upbringing from life in Virginia to life as a single mother & widow twice. James finally decided to figure out his racial identity since it was always a question to him he could never find an answer to. As a child he remembers asking his mother many times why her skin was so different from his & she would never answer the question. People in the neighborhood found her strange for some reason and she never spoke of her Jewish side or of her family at all. Throughout this book I got to see life from both Ruth's perspective as a Jewish girl where there many rules to abide by and then the sacrifices made for her own happiness regardless of the consequences, & life from James' perspective as a guy who lived his life not knowing who he was, who his mother was, & where he came from. This book is just beyond amazing and I compared it to the autobiography of Malcolm X, because these two men each share similar qualities in which they have a black father, & a white mother in time periods where it was unthinkable to even have seen relations between those two races. These two men each have to struggle to find themselves and see just where they belong in society. Although Malcolm X endured far worse than James McBride, these two books correlate to things that even now in this day and age, the world is still trying to cope from. Which is why I love this book so much, because it not only intrigues me, but it is based on a true story and there's not one thing in the book that James leaves out about his life. Also, the fact that I can see the point of view literally in first person from his mothers life as well just makes it all the worthwhile of reading it. I hope people can see the joy of reading this book as much as I did.

Body Image/Figures/Adolescence... Does 'Size MATTER'? (ID)

Currently in Health Class I am learning about different types of body disorders. I've learned about a woman name Rudine Howard who was born in 1962 and died in 1994 of Anorexia Nervosa. I knew about eating disorders, but I didn't know how severe they could be. Rudine Howard was 40 pounds at age 27. She looked as though she was 40 or 50 years old and no matter how hard she tried to gain weight, her brain mentality would make her think she was still "fat" and because of this, she would only get skinnier and skinnier. Around the world Rudine Howard was seen as a woman in need of a doctor 24/7 because she was so thin it looked disgusting, but she saw herself as just a regular woman who was still overweight when she looked in the mirror. I feel bad for Rudine, because she suffered a lot. At one point in 1992 she gained 40 extra pounds and was beginning to get to where she needed to be to maintain healthiness. She suffered a relapse due to her brain not being used to withholding food in her system and because of this she dropped down to 49 pounds at age 29. After this, she was hospitalized for a very long time and she could not help but cry because she knew she could not save herself from herself. Her brain was beginning to have mental exhaustion and her body was beginning to make her age faster. Seeing that video in class today made me realize that even though I may have had some insecurities about my looks here and there I will never try as hard as anorexia or bulimia to try and be thinner than what I already am. It helped me appreciate my life and myself more because there are still too many things I have yet to have explored on this Earth that I wouldn't want to miss out on. People are beautiful whatever size and shape they are, but don't ever try to change the way you look to accommodate society's ideal vision of beauty. At a certain time in a young girl's age, during her teen years, girls tend to want to change their image a lot, but other just take it too far because they want to look "Prettier". There is no such thing as looking "prettier", there is only beautiful and that is how everyone looks without the use of unhealthy "dieting" or plastic surgery.

One Of My Favorite Poems (FC)

Unending Love

By Rabindranath Tagore

I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times…
In life after life, in age after age, forever.
My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs,
That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms,
In life after life, in age after age, forever.

Whenever I hear old chronicles of love, its age-old pain,
Its ancient tale of being apart or together.
As I stare on and on into the past, in the end you emerge,
Clad in the light of a pole-star piercing the darkness of time:
You become an image of what is remembered forever.

You and I have floated here on the stream that brings from the fount.
At the heart of time, love of one for another.
We have played along side millions of lovers, shared in the same
Shy sweetness of meeting, the same distressful tears of farewell-
Old love but in shapes that renew and renew forever.

Today it is heaped at your feet, it has found its end in you
The love of all man’s days both past and forever:
Universal joy, universal sorrow, universal life.
The memories of all loves merging with this one love of ours –
And the songs of every poet past and forever.

This is my sketch of a human heart that I drew alongside with one of my favorite poems to go with it.

Obama wanting to enter war with Syria...can the US even handle that? (PB)

So all the talk in the news and media stirs up to the conclusion that Obama is seeking congressional approval for Syria strike. I’m sorry, but I don’t approve of this. Sure its sad to see how many innocent lives are being killed due to whats going on, but from the point of view as a citizen in this country where the government undergoes a series of infractions and not one but MANY economic downfalls...I don’t think we’re financially stable as a country to be placing ourselves in debt over a war that has nothing to do with us. R.I.P. to those lives lost in Syria and as much as we feel for them, the U.S. is still in recovery from all we went through with our own Wars and Recessions from the past. So Obama before we go and try fixing someone else’s problems, the country needs to stick together to continue fixing our own before we enter another. If we are so called trying to help families who have the inability to provide their children with a future in education, where will the money for that come from if it’s being drained into War? I’m 17 years old in my last year of high school, I’m praying we don’t enter a WWIII because of this decision, so I hope Obama really knows what he is getting himself into. As for the citizens of the US, even if we haven’t been asked our opinion, it’s called freedom of speech right? Let that be known what I just did.