Blonde, but not Dumb

Here are some of the ways you could say I am a “dumb blonde”:


Everywhere I go, I care about how I look.

I spend hours in front of the mirror putting on make-up and doing my hair.

I didn’t know what a lay-up was until two years ago.

I have no idea how to make Jello.

I love to say the word “like” a lot; however I try hard not to.

I like to play with my hair and twist it around my fingers.

I laugh at things that are not usually funny.

I can’t spell the word “embarrassed.”

It takes me two hours to get ready.

I have three times more clothes than my closet can hold.

I can’t live with out my cell phone.

It takes me about six times longer than most people to understand a joke.

I don’t like to attend church.

I hate anything that I will get dirty.

I go to see a math tutor about twice a week.

I don’t know how to play hockey or volleyball.

I don’t eat fast food because I am afraid it will give me acne.

           I never “asked” to be a dumb blonde. Dumb blonde is only what many label me when they first meet me. My hair isn’t even that blonde! I actually have some red hair, some brown hair, some black hair, and some blonde hair. But like many people who have blonde hair, I am automatically thrown into the "dumb blonde," category, regardless of my intelligence.
           I come from a family who’s very educated. Both of my parents went to a very well-known college, and both hold jobs of high status.  My parents both are very involved with my life; they make sure that I am obtaining all of the knowledge I can, and that I am getting straight A’s. 
          Just because Jessica Simpson, Brittany Spears, and Paris Hilton are all blonde and don't appear to be very intelligent, doesn’t mean that all blondes are unintelligent! Compare me with a typical "dumb blonde," we are nothing alike.

A Time Unlike Any Other

  

       Many of us, can think of an unusual occurrence in our lives, but most aren’t  serious or dramatic.   In 7th grade, I noticed that I had lost all feeling in my right foot. I was unable to move it up and down, which caused me to trip frequently. I informed my parent multiple times that something was wrong with my foot, but they didn’t do anything.
         One day, my Dad asked me if I wanted to go with him to the wine store. I had nothing better to do, so I said yes. In the wine store I was walking and I all of a sudden I tripped. I flew forward into a big case of wine bottles, hitting my chin. I got up and looked at my Dad; my eyes displayed my pain and embarrassment. That was the day my parents decided I needed to see a doctor.
         I waited all week until the day came for me to go. The doctor scraped a metal bar along the bottom of my foot, making my toes crinkle up.  He looked up, smiling, and said “That’s good!” He then grabbed a manila folder labeled with my name, in big black letters, and dug through it. He stopped at one page and read a small paragraph, then looked up at my mom and asked if it was true that in 2006 she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. My mom nodded her head. He looked at her and said, that he wanted me to take an MRI.  My mom said okay, and we headed back down to Radiology on the first floor.
          That night the phone rang-it was my doctor saying that he had looked at the x-rays and there was an abnormal spot in my right temporal lobe. My mom and my doctor talked for a few more minutes and then she hung up.  She looked over at me and told me that I was going to go to a doctor named Dr. Nagib.
          The next Wednesday, I went to Dr. Nagib’s office. I sat, shaking, terrified of what was to come. A petite Indian woman opened the door and called my name; I stood up and inched my way over to her, then proceeded to follow her into a room. After about five minutes, in walked a tall, well groomed man, displaying a big pearly smile on his face. He sat down and looked at me, within about three seconds that smile, went away, he told me that I had what’s called a hemangioma, in my right temporal lobe. He explained to me that it was a cluster of blood vassals that could explode and kill me, so it was vital that it was removed.
          I turned to my Dad, tears raced down my cheeks like horses on a race track; he told me, that if I went through with this surgery, I could have anything I wanted. I said that I want a puppy. It was set, I was to get a puppy, after my surgery.
          When the day came that I was to have my surgery, I was scared, more than I had ever been. Millions of questions raced throughout my head, I was scared of the unknown, and I had no idea what I was in for. 
           I went through with the surgery, and everything turned out to be okay. Although I had to experience the worst pain ever imaginable, I was able to get through it all, because of the positive support of my family and friends.  Yes, it’s unusual that this happened, but because of this, I have become more empathetic and understanding towards others. I am less judgmental and more open and accepting. Now when I look at those with any kind of illness I right away wonder what I can do to make a positive difference in their lives.  Yes, this surgery did save my life, but more importantly it made me a much better person. Sometimes when we undergo horrible times in our lives, we get more out of it than we ever would have expected, and take a lot out of such an unfortunate circumstance.

"The Inner Ring" - C.S. Lewis

           At first glace, I thought to myself, I really DO NOT want to read this, but once I was able to overcome that negative aspect and just read, I began to actually enjoy this essay, a lot!
          This essay had a message hidden in it, and it seems, to me, to be quite simple. I feel as though Lewis wants us to forget about trying to fit in with everyone and basically just live our lives as we are natually, they are trying to say that there is another Inner Ring within each Inner Ring. This is communicated in a more complicated fashion when Lewis says, "...perhaps you discovered that within the ring there was a Ring yet more inner, which in its turn was the fringe of the great school Ring to which the house Rings were only satellites. IT is every possible that the school ring was almostin touch with a Masters' Ring." We, as humans always seem to be more aware of Rings when we are outside of them, thus feeling low. The essays states, "You discover gradually, in almost indefinable ways, that is exists and that you are outside it." I read this and right away was able to connect with the essay more and I connected it with lower school and somewhat middle school, since that when there's a drastic change and all of a sudden we have cliques, the jocks, the geeks etc.
         All of us have trouble when we aren't part of that clique. "A terrible bore...ah, but how much More terrible if you were left out! It is tiring and unhealthy to lose your Saturday afternoons: but to have them free becauseyou don't matter, that is much worse." I LOVE this! Its satire makes it much more effective! The way Lewis pokes fun at these "Inner Rings". He makes it seem like "Inner Rings" are insignificant and irrelevant, most likely in an effort to ease his audience and have them understand and connect with him. He has a great message laced within all of the analogies and allusions: Inner Rings are bad and should be avoided.

Transcendentalism

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
-Proverbs 3:5-6

Transcendentalism:

1. Philosophy emphasizing reasoning: a system of philosophy, especially that of Kant, that regards the processes of reasoning as the key to knowledge of reality.
2. Philosophy emphasizing divine: a system of philosophy that emphasizes intuition as a means of knowing a spiritual reality and believes that divinity pervades nature and humanity. It is especially associated with Ralph Waldo Emerson and other New England writers.

                 This word doesn't relate to me at all.  I completely reject the concept of transcendentalism.  In fact, I find this term to be absolutely dumb!  I mean, if one truly believes in their religion and in God, then they would believe that God  will guide them through their life and help them to achieve and succeed.  They would believe that God would take them on a journey to help them finding their place in this world, and they would trust God, knowing that he has a plan for all of us, if we open our hearts up to him.  Transcendentalism suggests, that one goes out in nature and basically abandons all beliefs and creates their own, and then by doing so, they are supposed to be able to find their place in the world.  Transcendentalists throughout history have been known as individuals who have attempted to correct what they saw as misperceptions within societies. Therefore, I do not relate at all, to this word.

Yikes!

          When you try to please everybody, usually you end up pleasing nobody. There, in a nutshell, as I play amateur psychologist, is the dilemma Barack Obama faces. His fatal flaw (ask Tiger Woods, we've all got 'em) seems to be the desire to be liked by everyone. And so he placates the people who don't like him, while taking for granted the people who do.

         We saw it in the healthcare debate, when he could have stood up for what he claimed to believe in (universal healthcare for all Americans) and probably helped push a much stronger bill through congress. Instead, he tried to placate his enemies, to make them like him, if you will... when in reality, they'll never like him. They'll never return the favor. They are, after all, his enemies.

         And now he's doing the same thing with his Afghanistan/Pakistan war strategy. He's trying to please all sides. He's ramping up the military strength, while giving a date when the soldiers will begin to come home. Americans aren't stupid. One of the appealing traits about Obama has been that he doesn't assume we are. Until now.

          We know what war is. In the history of our country, we have been at war more often than not. We know wars aren't predictable, that you can't plot them out on paper, like a novel, and then have them turn out that way. We know you can't have it both ways. You're in, or you're out. You win, or you lose. Either that, or you stay in the place the war is being fought forever.

           Interesting that Obama never uttered the word 'victory' in his speech. It's apparently not an option. And yet, how are we to inspire the young men and women who fight this war? Usually it's through a belief that we can win. That our enemies will lose. How are they to feel about fighting a war in which victory is apparently not an option?