A family member of mine suffers with sever bipolar disorder and she had to spend some time in a mental hospital in order to gain control of her emotions again. When she came back she told me how horrific she was treated. In the facility they gave the patients paper thin scrubs that made them feel inhuman, they were not spoken to like adults or humans for that matter, and they were constantly treated like they were crazy. She told me that no one would even tell her where she had to go for things, luckily there was another woman there that guided her but the people who ran the facility would not talk to them. Most often then not people who go into psychiatric facilities are worse off because of the way they are treated in their care. Part of why I want to because a psychologist is that I want to open my own facility where the patients are treated with intentional care and kindness. I think making people who need help feel crazy is very inhumane. When mental health was just starting to get treated many years ago the patients were treated like science experiments and unfortunately the conditions that these people have to endure are not much better. I want to change the way people think about psychiatric facilities and I want to make it a place that people feel like they can genuinely get help from instead of feeling terrified to admit that they need any sort of health at the risk of being taken to somewhere that would only theoretically make them worse off. Some people have described that they experience that they had when they were in a psych ward was worse than the mental illness itself ever was. I think that patients also need to be wearing clothes that they feel comfortable in instead of slapping some paper in the shape of scrubs on them and calling it a day. I cannot even imagine how hopeless and inhumane people feel when all they are trying to do is get help.

I have talked about this before on here but not to the full detail that it deserves. I had a hostess job last summer to make some money for school, it was a restaurant job but I enjoyed it to the extent that I could. I knew a lot of the people that I worked with and I actually enjoyed interacting with a lot of the customers in the restaurant. As I was there though, there was a particular cook in the back that would start complimenting me. At first I found it harmless, I thought maybe he was just being nice. How naive of me, I know but he was not just being nice. The comments that he made towards me started getting more uncomfortable and weird. I still did not really think much of it, I just figured he was an older guy and it would eventually stop. A few weeks later I started receiving text messages from him about how he was interested in me and other weird comments. Mind you he was probably in his mid to late 70s. These messages were where I started to really draw the line and I knew I needed to tell my mangers. The next time I had a shift I was working and there was a lull in the day so I decided to tell the female manager, I figured that she would understand and take some action to protect me. Instead I was told that since I was 18 at the time there was not really anything that could be done to discourage these text messages and comments from him. I was so frustrated with what she told me. Was there really nothing that they could do? Was this not harassment in the workplace? I started telling some of the other staff that I worked with what was happening and these waitresses quickly got furious, not only with the cook harassing me but the manager that brushed off the situation. The other waitresses told me that I should tell the other managers and say that there was something that needed to be done. I ended up telling two other managers that kind of giggled about the text messages I received and then told me they would say something to him. (I am almost certain nothing was ever said to him.) The waitresses had my back though, they would go back into the kitchen and tell him off, and tell him how disgusting he was for harassing me. It eventually let to my dad having to come into work and say something to my managers. At this point though I already decided that this was not the job for me anymore. The things that upset me the most are that he had access to my personal phone number because the company would just keep it in a book under the register with all the employee numbers, I had to beg management to say anything to him, and I was told that just because I was already 18 there was nothing that could be done. I was the one that had to lose my job because I decided I did not want to deal with the harassment. Workplaces need to be held accountable for their employees and if something is happening they need to take action.

As a student at Penn State I am sure that you have probably heard of the CAPS resource for mental health. I’m not sure how many of you have actually tried to use it but I have just to see how accessible it really is. I found it extremely difficult to actually use and scheduling an appointment with CAPS is confusing to the point where I just gave up. I think for many student though, this is detrimental. Imagine a student who is genuinely struggling with their mental health who is already kind of nervous about reaching out to anyone trying to see how CAPS is. If it is so complicated or confusing no one is going to want to schedule any appointments. I have also heard from other students that they do not always have enough spots for students to be seen. This is a big deal and is very alarming that there are so many students that need to be seen but not all of them are getting the attention that they deserve. I hope that at some point they decide to expand the CAPS program so that it is more easily accessible and also everyone can get an appointment because everyone should be a priority. I have struggled with my mental health in the past and I think that is part of why I am so passionate about helping others and why I chose psychology as my major. I think that college has many stressors on its students and it can also be a confusing time in people’s lives due to being away from home so much, constant social stimulation, and constant work loads. There is barely enough time for students to even be able to reach out but when they make the decision to get help they shouldn’t have to work for it. Penn State along with other college campuses need to do more to make their student’s mental health a top priority because it does more damage than anyone is capable of seeing.

This woman is number 22 on Iowa State University’s women’s basketball team. Any time I open up Instagram or Tik Tok I always see something about Caitlin Clark. She is now becoming known as one of the greatest of all time among women’s college basketball. She at this point has a good chance of making it to the WNBA. She is even arguably doing better in the game of basketball than many male athletes in college basketball. Although she is undeniably great and is getting a lot of good attention she is getting loads of negative attention. It is clearly based in misogynistic views by men and women that I am sure would not be able to even put up a single point against her. This also didn’t just start when she went to the collegiate level, this was happening even back in high school when she would play a crowd of guys from the opposing team would chant, “overrated” at her every time she had the ball. She responded to this with pulling up a deep three that would silence the boys. After she did this she would often use one of Kobe’s old moves by shushing the crowd with one finger over her mouth. Caitlin has fought to get to this point in her career and people are always degrading how good she is at the sport mostly because she is a woman. Many of the comments on the videos that I see of her are very derogatory, for example people will say that she is transgender because she is so skilled at the sport or they will say that she would get demolished in the men’s bracket. As you can tell many people who have misogynistic points of view tend to comment these types of things. Clark is putting more focus on women’s basketball and making people watch more to see her play. I know that I will be watching the game of PSU against ISU on February 8th. There are videos of kids going to see her play to het their jerseys signed by her. She has become a role model for women in sports. I know that growing up playing basketball there weren’t too many women role models and my team would always end up watching the NBA or men’s college basketball teams for examples of how we should play. I hope that in the future girls who are interested in the sport of basketball will continue to have role models who are getting the recognition that they deserve.

For this topic I want to talk about a recent ban that happened in the United Kingdom. Recently the UK has placed a ban on XL Pit Bulls. This strikes a chord with me due to the fact that I myself have a pit bull. She is not extra large but that was only due to the fact that she was born with complications and was the runt of the litter. In the UK anyone who owns a XL bully, must leash their dog and muzzle them. If the owner fails to do so people are able to “destroy” their dog. I did not use the term destroy the United Kingdom decided to use this term. You must also register your dog and failure to do so will result in jail time or unlimited fines. I know that I do not live in the UK but this still concerns me. What if this ban crosses over into the United States. Pit Bulls despite their reputation are some of the sweetest and best family dogs to have. The people that do not agree with this have either met some of the very few aggressive pitties or have never met one in general. 

 

My dog is a 55 pound pit bull mix with the sweetest temperament. Her favorite activities include: fetching her ball, going for walks, being pet, taking naps, getting treats, and most of all playing in the snow. My family and I will leash her in public but in our own yard she gets free reign because she has never shown us that we cannot trust her by doing so. Her name is Stella and we got her during covid. The entire pandemic I spent raising the sweetest puppy. My family and I bought her from some of our family friends. When she was born she was not breathing and her legs would not work properly for months after her birth. She is a miracle dog, but she is definitely tiny for her breed. 

 

She is a loving dog and I have never once seen her be aggressive towards anyone. I get that pit bulls are more dangerous if they bite someone than say a chihuahua but tinier dogs are so much more prone to being aggressive. Pit bulls were originally bred to bull bait and fight other dogs until this was banned. Unfortunately though many of those dogs were already taught their aggressive ways and were known for that behavior.  

 

Because of the recent ban on these dogs there has been a rise of pit bulls being put into shelters and eventually euthanized. There are approximately over one million pit bulls put down each year. To me this is devastating when pit bulls are mostly known for the awful things that people bred them for many years ago. They cannot escape a stigma that they did not create. ASPCA.org even states, “Other pit bulls were specifically bred for work and companionship. These dogs have long been popular family pets, noted for their gentleness, affection and loyalty. And even those pit bulls bred to fight other animals were not prone to aggressiveness toward people.” These dogs do not want to be aggressive, that is what humans did to them. 

 

I hope that one day we can free these sweet animals from the stigma that they are chained to. 

Below are some pictures of my sweet Stella girl and why this political situation is personal to me.

When I was a child my mother did not really want me to join any sports, probably due to the fact that her and my dad were divorced and she did not want to split the time with me even more. I understand this now but at the time it infuriated me and I joined softball anyways. Then I would go on to join basketball, then travel basketball, then swimming, volleyball, track, and soccer. I played just about every sport there was to offer at my school. I was always oblivious to the treatment that the girls team would get in contrast to all the boy counterpart teams. It did not really phase me until it did in high school. I started to notice as I would put on the perfect outfit to match the theme flawlessly for a boys basketball game or even football game, that no one was doing this for the women’s games. At that point that wasn’t a big deal to me, so what people from my school were not dressing up to watch me play a game. I did not need them to anyways. Then, I started to see they had a larger coaching staff. The boys team would receive FIVE paid coaches for high school basketball and potentially more for football. The girls though, one head coach for varsity and one for junior varsity. How could this happen? I would attend all of the boys games with the stands full of people I did not know. All of the girls games would be everyone’s parents and a couple friends brave enough to support us. To me this was not adding up. Our record for girls basketball was far better than the boys. We had made it to play offs every single year. The boys you ask? Well they had to have the school pay to get them there always to lose in the first round. They always nicer equipment paid for by the school and all the sponsors they would get each season while my teammates and I spent large sums of money on all of our equipment with little fundraising. These examples do not just apply to my particular high school though. Lets take a look at the women’s basketball of Penn State. The current record for the lady lions is 13-5 and the men’s 9-10. The lady lions are also sitting currently 6th in the big 12 while the men’s is currently 12th. It also costs money as a student to attend the mens basketball games while at the women’s for students is completely free. Regular admissions is also average 18-20 for men and around 10 dollars for women’s. Although I did not find any information about the funding towards both of the programs I estimate just by the cost of the tickets that the men’s team is receive a larger sum of funding. It is not only basketball there is a history of women’s sports winning far more than the men’s teams at Penn State and still not receiving the recognition or the funding that they deserve. From a young age my school never failed to show me that I was lesser than any of the guys that would play a sport. Even when sometimes just for fun the girls and guys teams would play to see who would win and the girls came out on top most times. Will there ever be more funding, and more recognition for women’s sports? Especially the ones who spend all of their childhood perfecting a sport in order to play at a division 1 school. More needs to be done to show the women that they matter in their sports.

 

 

I have been struggling with what I should write because I have not felt as though any of my stories have been important enough to speak about. One story that does stick out to me is the difference in which women’s and men’s sports are treated in not only high school but also in college and professional leagues. I grew up playing a plethora of sports in high school and I loved it, but sometimes I seemed to be the only one. I took a particular liking to the sport basketball. There was a lack of funding, attendance, support, and staffing. Girls sports at my school were not nurtured in the same manor that they were for the boys at my school. They never were short on their funding, staffing or their attendance. They always had the stands full of people yearning to cheer them on. The girls though were always told that us playing the sport was a joke and that people would only come to watch it because they thought it was funny. Yet, every year somehow our girl’s basketball team would make it to the playoffs year after year based off our record alone. The boys on the other hand, had to buy their way in. Another story that I was considering was when I used to work as a hostess in a restaurant in my home town. I was the one to greet and seat every customer that walked in the door. I enjoyed the job until I was forced to quit. I started to receive some odd compliments from some of our kitchen staff that turned into that person somehow getting my number our of our books and starting to text me relentlessly. I went to my management about the situation and was just told that there was nothing that they could do about it since I was 18 years old. There was no protection for me. I later found out that other girls were also being affected by the same person and nothing was being done to protect any of them either. I think that there needs to be more done in the work place to preserve people’s privacy and to protect them regardless of age. In that story the girls that were affected were not the ones that should have been leaving their workplace it should have been the employee that could not control his behavior.

 

 

Then for my civic issues topic I plan on talking about how drinking and vaping have become normalize and the effects that they can have on not only college students but families and individuals when used in excess. I would also like to talk about how other countries with lower drinking ages do not experience as many drinking related crimes or issues in their societies and how early exposure can play a role in how alcohol affects societies.