4th Quarter article #4

For my last article, I chose an piece on the cannibal in Maryland who supposively attacked another victim before consuming his family's friend. Joshua Ceasar was attacked by Kinyua with a baseball bat covered in chains and barbed wire. Kinyua was found by other residents of the apartment complex about to kill Ceasar in the woods and we was turned over to campus police. He was charged with assault and reckless endangerment. He posted the $220,000 bail and a few days later he killed and ate his family's friend who was staying with him.
Just a side note, I take offense to the officer's description of the cannibal as "a Virginia Tech waiting to happen." Ouch. Anyways, I chose this article because I was curious as to this guy's motives (just so disgusting) and being a local issue I was curious how the situation was playing out. The article was well written and gave all the facts that I needed. I didn't particularly enjoy the article since it's a gruesome topic, but I did get a better understanding of the whole situation.
http://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2012/06/05/report-accused-md-cannibal-va-tech-in-waiting
(The url would say "cannibal-va-tech-in-wainting) ugh.

4th Quarter article #3

To shake things up, I chose an editorial piece from the Washington Post about the Queen's jubilee. It's a satiric article about the Queen of England's jubilee and Americans' fascination with the royals. With much sarcasm, the author abhors the queen's jubilee as just a sideshow, because in a America, rich people parading around are looked down upon; "there's no room for royalty with the Kardashians in town."

I chose this article because I wasn't quite sure what a jubilee was and I was interested in reading a
different kind of article. The piece was fairly decent, it could have used work in the flow of the article and there was a spelling error/typo. (I'm the Features editor for the school paper so I tend to notice these things lol). I thought the article was entertaining and made a few good points- people care more about a bald man marrying his college girlfriend (William and Kate) than venus crossing in front of the sun.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/post/jubilee-envy--time-for-an-american-monarchy/2012/06/05/gJQAc8IWGV_blog.html

4th Quarter Article #2

I read an article in Glamour magazine about peoples' perceptions of others based on their physical physique (weight). Overweight people are stereotyped as "sloppy, lazy, and slow" while skinny people are typed as "uptight, controlling, unwomanly, and bitchy." Survey results showed women were 6-8 times for like to stereotype an overweight woman in that matter and 4 times as likely to stereotype a skinny woman. Even people who had the same body type applied the stereotype to peers with a similar physique.  These stereotypes of women have gone back centuries which can be seen in old fables where skinny women are depicted as witches and overweight women are depicted as warm and ineffective workers.

I chose this article because it had an interesting psychological observation of peoples' perceptions. I've always been fascinated as to what people think and why they think about it. The article was fairly well written; he used quotes to support his assertions but there was still evident bias throughout the piece. I enjoyed this article and it made me think about my stereotypes of other people and made me think about refraining judgmental thoughts of others based on appearance.
http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/2012/05/weight-stereotyping-the-secret-way-people-are-judging-you-based-on-your-body-glamour-june-2012

4th Quarter Article #1

I read an article about the transit of Venus in National Geographic. Transits happen when a planet crosses in between the sun and the earth and only mercury and venus can partake in this unusual alignment. The next transit won't be seen until 2117. Venus approximately transited for 6 hours and appeared as a small black dot in front of the sun (like a pea in front of a watermelon). The transit occurred on Tuesday June 5th at 6:05 pm.
I chose this article because I always found the national geographic articles to be very informing and I was curious what the big deal was about this "transit thingy." I thought the article was very well written and informative; I gained a greater understanding on how the alignment works and the history of sightings of the alignment of Venus. I did enjoy the article; it was refreshing to read something different and more science based then the usual articles I read in magazines.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/06/120604-transit-of-venus-2012-sun-planet-hubble-space-science-how-when/

Senior Reflection #3

For my final senior reflection I'm going to focus on what I plan on doing for the rest of my life. So the big plan is that one day I have my own practice as a psychologist and possibly be involved in starting up a charity in which counselors are sent to poor countries where wars, natural disasters, or other traumatic experiences are occurring to help people around the world. Maybe it will specialize in women's safety? Another idea is providing clinics in poor/male-dominated countries where women can get medical help, therapy, and supplies to help deal with a variety of issues such as rape or spousal abuse. To reach this goal, I am majoring in psychology at Virginia Tech and plan on either pursuing a masters or PhD program. I'm not quite sure what school yet for that, just depends where life takes me. One thing I've decided though, as ambitious as my goals are, I choose that now matter what happens, I'll stay focused on my relationship and building a family (long time from now). Even if I have to move around all the time, he's worth it. I know I can make it work. I don't want to see my life go by while I focus on my career. 

Senior Reflection #2

Okay so for my second senior year reflection I'll talk about what I'm doing this summer... so surprise surprise I'm once again going to be continuously busy. Hopefully this hasn't become a habit that I'll take to college because I sadly have the bad habit of taking on too much. Anyways, after I come back from beach week I'll be resuming my two jobs: working at the library and as an Avon Representative. Also, I'm starting an internship at Main Street in Fairfax in which I help the school's psychologist with specialized programs such as self-esteem building. On top of that, I may also do babysitting gigs or go back to working at this tutoring place called Kumon a couple times a week. Plus I have a couple vacations already  planned out: beach week (Myrtle Beach), Florida with my mom, and NC with my boyfriend's family. It's going to be one crazy busy summer before college but I cannot wait for it too start (only a couple more days!) :)

Senior Reflection #1

For my first reflection, I'm going to focus on how splendid this year has been. Senior is the best year of high school and I'm so glad I'm graduating and blah blah. But no, in actuality... it sort of sucked. Whoever said senior year was chill and that second semester was a joke was lying. I literally have been non-stop with school, work, (and until now) interning. Seriously, it's the last week and I still have all these projects and finals due. I'm up this late in the first place because of my video metaphor project for english. Ugh.

Anyways, despite the tiresome busy work, school wasn't too bad and I learned a ton. The combination of Political Science, your class, and Human Geography has allowed me to truly understand politics and allows me to hold intellectual conversations with people. I was lucky and all of my teachers were amazing!

Some of the negatives of senior year were that I was constantly stressed trying to do this and that (scholarships, applications, work, sports, school, interact club, etc.). Also, I sort of lost touch with a really close friend and learned that she honestly didn't care about me. I guess everyone's true colors are eventually revealed. Overall, senior year was alright. I'm just glad I am almost out of here. It's weird sometimes being one of the oldest kids in the grade. I feel like I should have left here a long time ago.