Month: January 2021

Draft for “This I Believe” speech

A popular ideology in having a great social life means getting to experience fantastic events or memories with loved one or close friends; that you should always have them by your side for day you know will be memorable. That can be nice and fulfilling, but not always in my eyes. I grew up believing you make friends for the sole purpose of having someone to rely on, a shoulder to cry on, an ear to talk into and someone who would help me at the drop of a hat. You make friends early on because we are taught that to be a foundation of our social life, but we learn that friends come and go like a revolving door. It is nice to finally find a true, strong, genuine connection with someone you label a friend; until they let you down in ways that teach you a valuable lesson.

I was 14 years old, finishing up my first year of high school, just becoming comfortable with the friends I made this year and grateful to have them in my life. It was a 4 o’clock morning with crisp spring air and I was getting ready to see an early morning concert with one of my “best friends”, my dad was kind enough to drive us in to Rockefeller center to see the show. 10 minutes before I leave the house I send a text to my friend “Leaving in 10 minutes see you soon” five minutes pass by with no response so I send another text with the same message, my stomach is starting to turn now as the worst case scenario whirls around in my head. I text that I’m leaving, still no response, pull up to her house and call her about 5 times letting each call ring to the last possible second, also trying to give her the benefit of the doubt, as tears build up in my eyes and I feel choked up I realize it was time to just head into the city without her; I was not going to miss out on an experience because I was alone now. Standing next to all these girls with their friends waiting for the music to start, hearing them laughing, talking about what song they were most excited to hear or what their plans were after made me more upset that I was not sharing this experience with my friend; but once the singer came out all that sadness, self pity and disappointment went away. I learned to make conversation with people next to me so I wasn’t uneasy. The concert came to an end and a feeling of relief and content swarmed me.

This experience made me believe in experiencing things by yourself. It taught me you don’t always need a friend by your side for every moment that you will feel a whiff of euphoria in. This experience has made me grow up and become more confident to walk by myself, attend an event by myself or even travel by myself. It is best to experience activities like these on your own so you can really relish the moment and be happy that you got to live within a passion of yours. My belief in experiencing things on your own pushes you to satisfy yourself and learn to enjoy just the company of yourself, without relying on others.

Final ideas for blogs

My civic issues blog will based around the broad them of social justice, with the main topic being about prison reform and issues with prisoners receiving the death penalty for nonviolent crimes. I believe this will be very beneficial for me as well as my peers reading because it is a very pressing and relevant issue happening in our society today; we aren’t always informed about cases like these and I would like to bring more light to the situation.

My passion blog I have decided to continue writing about locations to travel to in the future or other trips I have previously taken. I have gained so much positive feedback from my classmates last semester with my posts so I feel I might as well stick with it. The research I have done for it has lead me to find so many new and diverse locations to travel to and hopefully I have inspired others to want to travel to these places as well one day.

Ideas for Blogs

Two ideas for my “This I believe podcast” are listed below

1. This I believe… always stay in contact with early childhood friends; friends made at younger ages tend to be the ones who are more genuine and know you for you.
2. This I believe…Music shapes your appreciation; Music is one of many powerful artistic sources that open your eyes to knew feelings and as if you’ve known the artist your whole life.

Two ideas for my passion blog are listed below

1. Sticking with my original idea of traveling, my travel experiences or places I would like to go; but I realize this topic has become more difficult to work with due to COVID circumstances.
2. Another route would be talking about serial killer cases or cold cases, because I am very interested in that area and watch a lot of true crime documentaries.

Two ideas for my civic issue blog are listed below

1. Exploring the issue of the death penalty for non-violent crimes or just prison reform in general. I feel it is a very relevant issue that is just gaining light, especially on social media where petitions are made to stop or reverse a death row charge.
2. Another topic I am interested in is child abuse in homes but focusing more on mental and verbal abuse and helping kids recognize at an earlier age what abusive signs are from parents.