It's so sad to think about...

Suicide is a very sensitive subject to breach; there are a lot of different views and a lot of different feelings that are involved in this area. There are also a lot of different reasons why people choose to end their own lives. I personally think that it is unbelievably sad that this happens so often. I looked it up and over 33 thousand people in the United States commit suicide every year, what’s even sadder is that suicide is the fifth leading cause of death in youths between the ages of five and fourteen and the third leading cause of death in youths between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four. I find it very disturbing to think that a five year old would feel the need to end their life. Children so young should not even know that there is something of this nature in the world, let alone be a statistic in the ever increasing numbers. When you are a teenager sometimes things get really hard and the thought does cross your mind. I will admit I have thought about it before and I know friends who have thought about it before as well. I don’t personally know anyone who has attempted suicide or committed suicide and I thank God everyday that I don’t. Is suicide justifiable? I don’t really think that anyone can say, we all have our opinions on certain issues and feel how we feel about them but until you have walked in someone else’s shoes to know how they were feeling and how they were thinking, it is nobodies place to judge them. A lot of times kids get bullied around at school, people start rumors about them, make fun of them, and basically make their lives miserable. When you are a teenager you don’t really have a choice but to deal with it either, you can’t stop going to school, you can’t move away, and most of the time you can’t hide from it either. As an adult there is more stress added and often times more expectations that need to be lived up to. I can understand why people would feel like there was no other way out and because I can understand it makes me so sad to think that so many lives have been ended mostly because of society’s ruthless misunderstanding and violence towards anyone and everyone. To feel like there was no way out would be torturous. I also think that this problem can be drastically reduced and that is another reason why it is so sad to think about. There is something that can be done to help these people, to save them yet many times people just turn the other way. I think that if our society cared more about each other and showed more compassion and respect towards other human beings that the numbers of people who felt the need to end their lives would dramatically decrease. It is essentially all up to us and what we are or are not going to do about it.

What Could Life Be Like...?

I think that there are so many different analogies for what life could be like that it is insanely hard to pick one. We all know the famous saying by Forrest Gump “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get”, then there are the sayings that life is like a rollercoaster, life is life a swing, and so on and so forth. All of which are true. Life is like a lot of things. There are so many different ways that life could go wrong or life could go right, there are so many ups and downs along the way, and there are a lot of situations that come by that people just don’t know how to handle. So how do we make the distinction? How do we know what life is really like? I don’t think we can. We all live our lives one day at a time, one moment at a time. Some of us like the live in the future or live in the past but when it comes down to it we have nothing but the here and now. If we don’t live everyday for what it is then who is to say that we will have tomorrow. There are even reference to this in the Bible, don’t put off something for tomorrow if you could do it today.
I think that all of these analogies are true. Life is really like a box of chocolates and you never really do know what you are going to get, life is also like a rollercoaster there are so many ups and downs and most of the time they catch you off guard. The key is to live for each moment because you really don’t know if you are going to get another moment to do the things you want. If you love someone tell them, if you want to do something do it, if you want to say something say it. Too many of us too often live our lives in fear and that fear is eventually going to be our downfall. Would you rather wake up the morning of your last day thinking “I wish I would have…” or would you rather wake up on that day thinking “I am so glad that I did…”? I think that everyone should live like there is no tomorrow because tomorrow is not guaranteed to us, the only thing that we really have is now and what we choose to do with it.

What's in a type...

I do not believe that people have certain types, what I do believe however, is that people are naturally attracted to certain characteristics they see in other people. There may be qualities that people look for in a person that they deem necessary for them to be compatible such as, loyalty, trustworthiness, compassion, etc. As for the specific type of a person, I believe that that varies. Just because I like tall guys with lots of muscles and a good sense of humor, does not mean that that is the only “type” of guy that I will date or even the type of guy that I will marry. I do believe that some people have strict requirements for the person that they will date, a check list you could call it, of what exactly they are looking for in someone else. These people however, are going to be hard-pressed to find someone who is an exact match to that list and who lives up to their expectations. I think that these qualifications come from a variety of different things in peoples’ lives. The way you were raised could be a factor, the friends that you have, the lifestyle you live, the people you have dated in the past. There are so many things that could cause you to want to be with someone who has certain characteristics or cause you not to want to be with them. For instance, if you dated someone who liked to hit you and make you cry then realized that you are better than that and do not deserve that kinds of treatment (and no one does) then in your next relationship is someone tried to treat you that way you would not put up with it. Same goes when you are with someone who treats you amazing, if they are good to you but it does not work out, in your next relationship you will want someone who is good to you as well. I think that part of needing someone to be a certain way, a certain “type”, partially comes from your own insecurities. What these kinds of people do not realize though, is that when you have so many expectations you often get let down. Nobody is perfect and it is not anyone else’s job to try to make them either. The way that I have found works the best, but I am not expert and in no way know everything about relationships and what makes them work, is to be open-minded and accepting of who someone is and if after getting to know that someone, you do not like the person that they are then that is that. If you feel the need to try to change them then that is not the person for you. There are always going to be things in a relationship or a person that you do not care for one hundred percent but nobody is perfect and if that persons flaws are too much to deal with then you are better off finding someone else.

who's to say?

I think that in some ways our culture has changes significantly towards women but in others it has not. Women are still prohibited from things and the scale is not yet set to equal for men and women. I think that there are a lot of reasons why Woolf’s argument would not be valid anymore today, but there are also some instances where they are. Women are often discriminated against in the work place because some people chose to believe that men can do things better than women. There are also a lot of cases of sexual harassment against women in the work place as well. Though women have made many advancements and society has conformed to realize that women should have just as many rights as men, women are still held in a lower spot in some cases. For example, the military does not allow women in direct ground combat and a variety of others things are off limits to them as well. The argument for these things is that women are more vulnerable than men are if someone were to be hurt or if they were put in a very stressful situation. I believe that women have the capability to make just as many and just as important decisions as men and that given the opportunity to do so would exceed expectations and cancel out common misconceptions. I mean there are people that believe that women are stronger than men all over the world, I mean we are the ones who bear children and I personally have had many guys tell me that they would never be able to do that or that they would cry like little babies. So why is it that women can deal with one of the most excruciating ordeals known to human kind but are not able to make rational decisions in a tense situation?
I know that there are women’s right advocates out there and that they are fighting to make women equal with men in all areas across the board. But just because we have made many advancements and come a very long way does not mean that the battle is over. Women have been fighting to be just be seen and heard for centuries, I do not know what would make anyone think that everything is equal. This misconception about equality is not just between men and women either, there are examples of it everywhere: race, religion, sexual orientation, the list could go on and on.
Hopefully, some day in the near future the world will realize that we are all just people and that we all deserve equal rights and equal opportunities. Nobody is better than anyone else and the people who think that they are good enough to decide if someone is better or if someone is worse, are the worst people of them all. Anybody and everybody can make whatever they want out of themselves and do whatever they want with their lives and nobody else has any right to say anything about it, good, bad, or indifferent.