Meta-Post 3.0

Please check out my most recent post "Wealth Does Not Equal Happiness"

This semester, I was proud of a lot of things in my blogging, and I also thought I could have done some things better.

One thing I was proud of was my Junior Theme blogs, and connecting my blog with my JT. Sometimes it's hard to come up with blog topics that relation directly to things that are happening in class, so Junior Theme was a great opportunity to connect things in the outside world to a topic that I was an expert on. In my blog "Junior Theme & Spring Break" I connected my topic of assisted suicide to a situation that arose over spring break, which just goes to show you that potential blog topics and connections can pop up when you least expect it. I also connected my junior theme to current events in my blog "When Parenting Goes Wrong"  on April 12th. I thought my connection between the story of a mom refusing to give her son his chemotherapy drugs was possibly a stretch, but I was proud of myself that I was attempting to connect everything to my junior theme because I had so much knowledge of it. I also thought my blogs during the JT time period were both helpful to write, because I could sort out my ideas in writing and think about what I needed to do over the next week, and also numerous.

A lot of the ideas for my blogs from this semester came from experiences I had during the day or things that were on my mind. While it is great that I am able to bring the discussions and topics we are covering in class outside the classroom and make connections in real life, I think some of my blogs needed a little more grounding in research or other types of media besides just my personal experience. For example, in my post "SnOMG" I wrote about my experiences being technology-free during the snow day. During this time we were talking about the children growing up in different periods of history. I think my experiences during the snow day were valuable ideas to put in my post, but I probably could have added more research or quotes to provoke more of a discussion or an argument instead of simply telling my readers a story.

While some aspects of my blog have improved greatly, I am embarrassed to say that the mechanics of my blogging have stayed the same. First semester, I emboldened every single question or important phrase in my blogs, which was not very empathetic to my readers. This semester, I don't think I put enough text in bold, which is just as hard if not harder for the reader to understand. Also, my titles need improvement. Many people in our class have funny, creative titles to their blogs. No matter how long I sit and think, I can't seem to come up with something witty enough to put as a title to my blog. On the other hand, an improvement that I have made in the last few blogs is figuring out how to center and italicize quotes. I put quotes in both my blogs "The Bucket List" and "Wealth Does Not Equal Happiness", and I think it helps the readers to have a source to base their comments off of.

Blogging was a great experience for me this year. While my blogs weren't perfect, I had to challenge myself to think critically at everything while writing them. Writing blogs was not always the most fun of tasks, but as I write this I am pretty sad that this is my last official blog for AS class.

Wealth Does Not Equal Happiness

In a list of the wealthiest countries, it is no surprise that the United States comes out on top, earning almost  triple the GDP than runner-up Japan. 

These statistics would make you think that Americans, in general, are wealthier and less stressed than their foreign counterparts, right? Well think again. In a Business Week study in which researchers compiled data to compare happiness in countries around the world, the United States ranked 23rd, below many countries whose citizens have lower incomes. To read more about the study, click here. The article states their finding, saying: 

"The most significant factors were health, the level of poverty, and access to basic education."

We already know that America is extremely wealthy, and it seems to me (although I'm not an expert) that in the broad spectrum of the world, Americans are decently healthy and they all have access to education up to High School. What else could be causing America's unhappiness?


This study made me think of the American dream. As Americans, we always think there is something more to improve, more money to be made, or another wrung on the social ladder to climb. We are never content with where we are at. So we can continue to make money exponentially compared to the rest of the world, but our mindset will hold us back from the happiness we are truly searching for.

The Bucket List

Some people love the concept of having a "bucket list", or a list of things they want to do before they die. The concept of having a full and happy life with many diverse experiences is appealing to almost everybody, but some people are more likely to write down these ideas than others. For me, the idea of a"Bucket List" is daunting. Having long term goals like "travel the world" or "have a family", that are vague and difficult to plan very far and advance is a little bit scary to me. I worry that writing them down and then not accomplishing them would be a failure, so I choose not to write them down. Many professionals, though, stress the importance of bucket lists as a way to find meaning and excitement in life, as in this USA Today article:

"These lists tend to feature all the highlights on the aspirational horizon — acts of fancy, courage and delight, full of punch and flavor, adrenalin and imagination. "It's not enough to react to life on a day-by-day basis. People need a road map. Life lists are one of the best ways to plumb the depths of the human psyche," says Caroline Adams Miller, a Bethesda, Md.-based author, motivational speaker and life coach who encourages clients to create a 100-item roster."

So, who do you think is the most likely to create a Bucket list? We have been talking a lot in class about characteristics of social classes, as well as what kind of lists people in our class prefer to create. Is it more likely that the upper classes create bucket lists to add excitement to their stereotypically quiet and refined lives, or do lower classes create bucket lists in order to have higher goals or aspirations and keep them motivated to work hard and succeed? Why do you think some people in our class (me included) are turned off by the idea of a bucket list?

Are you part of the party?

This weekend, I had the opportunity to work at a charity benefit with a couple of friends. The benefit was for the purpose of raising money for a private school downtown that caters to many families below the poverty line with scholarships and opportunities that they might not get otherwise. We've been talking about social class and the devision between lower and upper classes in class for the past month, and I was able to make many observations about characteristics of social class at the benefit.

For one, almost everyone who attended the benefit was wearing extremely expensive and formal attire. The venue was also very formal, and gave off the impression of wealth. I think it would be a safe assumption to say that most of the people attending would be considered upper class. In fact, the only people who may not be considered upper class were a handful of grade school kids from the school we were raising money for. The kids stuck out because they were wearing their school uniforms in order to ask for donations from people attending.

The contrast between how people reacted to those kids and how they reacted to me and my friends was very evident. My friends and I were wearing the same formal attire as everyone else, even though we were doing generally the same jobs as the kids, and we were often engaged in conversation as if we were part of the party or "one of them". On the other hand, when someone attending the party was approached by a child in a school uniform, they were often very polite and generous, but did not react as if the child were a part of their circle, and generally left the conversation after they had made their transaction. It is true that some of this might be because we were older than a lot of the kids, but it still seemed as though there was a difference in the reactions of the people.

Once people found out we were from New Trier, this only intensified. A woman inquired about where I was thinking about going to college when she learned I was a junior. It was interesting that she just assumed that I was going to attend college because of where I go to school, when she never would have mentioned college when talking to a student from the school we were raising money for.

Glee

For the past few weeks in class we have been talking about social class, and I found a connection in this week's episode of Glee. For those of you who don't watch it, it's a show that follows around various members of a high school glee club in their quest to nationals, and in their personal lives.

This week, Sam, a popular and well-liked character, starts having to wear hand-me-downs and live with his family in a motel room because his dad lost his job. While Sam's appearance doesn't change drastically, his interactions with others change. He starts accepting favors from his friends (new clothes and help babysitting his siblings), but they still love him and continue to support him. So, do you think Sam changed social classes in the episode? In class, some people were saying that income and money are not the only reasons why someone could be considered "upper class". They argued that a person with a lower income could be considered upper class if they gave off the appearance of being upper class by having great social connections and appearing smart and highly educated.

Sam still has the appearance, education level, and social connections of a middle class person, but his family has the income of someone in a lower class. Is it possible that Sam is still middle class because he doesn't have the stereotypical "lower class" traits?

The Royal Wedding

Since we've been talking about social classes in class this past week, I thought I could relate it to an event that  has been dominating the news recently: the royal wedding. I think most people would agree that Prince William is at the very top of the upper class. A combination of tramendous wealth, social capital, education, and a respected career in the military as well as being a royal put him on the top of anyone's list as someone who rules the class system.

In class the other day we were also talking about how the American class system differs from that of other countries, especially England where the social classes are deeply rooted in history and very hard to change. So, are England's social classes becoming less prevalent, demonstrated by Prince William's choice of bride? Kate Middleton does not belong to the lower classes no matter how you look at it, but she is definitely not on the same level as the Prince. She does not have royal blood and comes from a much more low-profile family. The same is true for William's father, Prince Charles, who also married a "commoner".

So, could it be that England is just modernizing it's social class to be defined more on looks and the way one acts instead of family background and titles, or could the social class system be falling apart slowly all together?

Junior Theme #4

This weekend I have started the daunting task of writing my junior theme. I was a little bit caught off guard when I realized this week that we don't have unlimited time to research and put together information, and that I actually had to start putting my thoughts into words very soon. The hardest part about writing the paper is coming up with points and sections that include everything you want to mention. Right now from what I have written so far, I am thinking that my paper is only going to be two sections, the two most important reasons why I think America is divided over the issue of assisted suicide. Having only two sections instead of more, smaller points is a little bit scary. From the research I've done, I have found hundreds of reasons why people disagree on this issue, some bigger than others but all of them very important. I feel like by just focusing on two things, I'll be leaving something out. But there was so much information on assisted suicide that I am bound to leave something out, so I've decided that it's most important that I am choosing two things that are extremely important and presenting them in the best way I can.

This week, I also did my interview. Unfortunately, when it got time to call my interviewee the phone didn't work for a California phone number, so I had to use the phone I was planning to use to record my interview to call my person, and take notes instead. It was a really helpful interview, and I was able to write down a few quotes and a lot of notes. The person I interviewed is a law professor at University of Michigan and UC San Diego, and he was very knowledgeable and a true expert in the subject of assisted suicide. A lot of things that he said were points that I had been thinking about during my research, but I couldn't have put them into words without his help. I have been trying to ignore my own personal feelings about assisted suicide in the process of the paper, but it was interesting to interview someone who has close to the same views as me, because the view I hold isn't exactly on one side or the other, it's pretty unique.

Good luck writing everyone!