Kind Of A Weird Question But…

I am what most people would call a nerd. I love to learn about all sorts of historical facts and people. Any sorts of history really, (though war history is not something that is too enjoyable), and while I was doing this weeks blogs I was watching this show, “The Tudors”. While I was watching the show I got this really weird thought in my head.
This was an extremely different time and I wondered if there was ever a possibility that a person could be a vegetarian like me.
Would a king or queen have ever been able to say “No, I don’t think I will eat any form of meat”. My first instinct would be to say no, because this was a time when every dinner and breakfast and meal had some form of a meat in it. (How would any king have been able to get as fat as they did without all that meat?”)

Is vegetarianism a relatively new phenomenon or has this idea been around since the years of the kings and queens of Europe? I thought that I would ask this question to all my European history friends because we all ask weird questions about history.

What would a king or queen have said if I was a princess and I told them that I never wanted to eat meat again. They probably would have just called me a silly girl and told me to stop thinking too hard. Although at this time, people were not as cruel towards animals and they treated them with some sort of respect.

Then I started thinking about how extremely time has changed since then and how different life would be if things had never changed. Certainly weird questions and thoughts but I thought that it might be cool to write a blog about this idea and see what any other people think about it. Maybe asking Mrs. Zwanziger would be the best idea but I have feeling she would probably laugh at me (in a good way) and then we would start to get all distracted and start to talk about other things.
But is an interesting question is it not? What do y’all think?

Why am I so excited about College?

This might seem like something that is extremely silly but there is one reason that I am really excited to go to college. The food. (See, it does seem silly does it not?) I am so excited because at college there are lots of children like me. There has to be food to supply all the vegetaraians that go to the school. At every school visit I have been to, there has always been a food line for people like me to enjoy.

One of the things a school must have for me to think about going there is good (vegetarian)food that will make sure that I will be able to eat healthy everyday. This is why when I go to a big school I always make myself seem like a pig and eat anything and everything that I can. Probably not the best way to make a first impression, but food is certainly important is it not? 🙂

The best part about having the large schools and the lunch halls is the fact that at each school the food has some way of telling the students that go there if the food is vegetarian or not. This makes deciding what to eat much easier,because then I know what I should and should not eat.

The one thing that is going to be a deciding factor in deciding which school to pick is going to be the type of food that a school has and whether or not I would enjoy waking up and eating there everyday for four years.(There will not be much of me going out to eat unless that means  going to a friends house with a bag full of ramen noodles and Capri Suns). I have told my mother this fact and she just laughs at me. Maybe she is correct about me being really sily when I say this fact but I think that this is something that is important,especially to someone like me who has somewhat weird diertary habits and needs to make sure that I will be able to eat well while I am away at school. (Because I think that no matter what school I go to, my mom will not be okay with visiting me every night just to make sure that I can pig out and eat like a starved woman.) (Maybe she would, I think I should ask her if it would be possible in any way).

Gosh, I am so excited to be going to college.

A Little More About My Book

So as I started to read my book a little more, I realized something. It is still a great book to read, but there was one thing I noticed. The author constantly talks about the fact that when he was writing his book, he used really good sources. I think that while doing this can sometimes help the book seem more truthful, in this case with the author constantly talking about this fact, it makes it almost seem if the author is desperate to try and make his book seem better. Maybe I am reading to much into this fact, but I think it makes the book not seem as great. This is just something small, because the author does actually back up these claims with facts(are they as good as he claims? I do not know but he does use facts).

Foer tells stories throughout his book, about the process he used to make the book what it is. He talks about all of the things he did to make sure that he was writing accurately about his topic. He talked about one night when he actually snuck into a factory farm and saw some of the horrible things that went on inside. (He went into a barn like building where all the chicks were kept and talked about all the dead chicks that were stuck inside with the others, most of them were sick.) This gives more credibility to his writings because he says that he experienced these things and that he knows they happened, so they helped his come to the conclusion that he did.

The other thing that is interesting about his book(which helps his arguement) is that he has letters and testimonies from people on the other side of the arguement(the people for the factory farming techniques). I think this helps his argument appeal to even more people as this says that he has thought the of the other arguements and heard their side of the story and he still came to this conclusion. It would help his arguement because this shows that he did not just dismiss other peoples worries.

The way the book is written is quite interesting, so far he has gone in chronlogical order, talking about the relationship between animals and humans and how it has changed over the years, getting to where we are today, this makes it really interesting because Foer goes back in time to explain how we got to the mass production of animals that we have today.

 

So this book I’m reading

The majority of my readers will know about the book essay that we have to write for class. Maybe some readers don’t, but I do not think so.

Anyway, I was dreading this assignment alot when  I heard we had to do it. I thought I was going to get stuck with some boring book, that used long, difficult, smart-people words.(This was before my parent-teacher conference.) While at this parent-teacher conference, Dr. Ayers mentioned a book that I might like called “Eating Animals” by Jonathan Safran Foer.  This book talks about the choices that come along with deciding which lifestyle to live’vegetarian or non-vegetarian, and the urgency this decision takes on when deciding what is best for a child. It is certainly not a boring book just full of statistics and claims over and over. Actually I felt my interest growing deeper and deeper the more I read the book.

I think there was some definite reasons for this.First of all, throughout the book (the amount that I have read through at this moment.) the author, Foer, uses lots of stories to color the narrative of the work. I am more apt to read this book because there are lots of anecdotes to draw the claims into real life and help them seem relevent to everyone reading this novel.

Second, (and this is somewhat of an ethical appeal), Foer constantly talks about the reason for him trying to make this difficult conclusion. The fact that he has become a father. This tells his readers that he can connect with them emotionally and that he has many of the questions and fears of many people; ones that are reading his book, and ones that have become new parents. Even me personally(one who does not plan on having children for many, many years) felt myself begin to think; You know, he might be right.

He doesn’t flood the text with his proof. It isn’t

Claim, statistic, statistic, source, claim, statistic,statistic,source. He leaves this information(his sources) to the end. This helps make for an interesting read instead of making Foer like someone who is desperate to prove his point.

And this is just the beginning of the book, who knows what is to come? I just hope I can write this essay well….

 

A Controversial Topic

Have any of you heard of a certain find of french food known as foie gras? I assume that lots’ of you have at least heard of the name, but maybe you haven’t ever learned what it really is.

The dictionary.com definition of the word is”

the liver of specially fattened geese or ducks, used as a table delicacy, especially in the form of a paste.

If you ask people what they think about it, you will get the answers that foie gras is cruel and inhumane and should stop being produced. It certainly is a controversial topic, but why on earth is this food so controversial? I didn’t see anything wrong with. The problem most people have is the method of production of foie gras. It is a delicacy that requires the fattening of a ducks liver. This doesn’t seem like a big deal to most people, however, to get the duck’s liver fattened, the ducks are often force-fed. This strikes as extremely cruel(what do you think?). I have never tried this food, so I can’t give much of a consensus on the topic. However, me being a vegetarian, I feel for these ducks. I understand that many people enjoy this food to eat and that many farmers need the production of this food to sustain their livelihood. How can I condemn someone for doing something that is necessary for their survival? I hold no judgement to these people because I know that if my life depended on it, that I would probably be doing the same thing. *gasp. Does that make me hypocrite? Certainly I hope not, but maybe it does. A vegetarian that doesn’t raise hell about something that lots of people won’t even think about condoning? Woah. This is some crazy stuff right. Well maybe once I look more into the subject I will become some leading advocate calling out all those duck farmers all over the world but before I make some harsh judgement on the subject, maybe I should know what I am talking about. Don’t want to be like lots of other people in this world. (Oh the examples I could give you….), I would like to know what I am talking about before I make a bunch of claims.

Is Foie Gras Cruel?

Am I Being Whiny?

It was in seventh grade at Roosevelt when I became a vegetarian. I was worried about making sure I would have food at school because I knew that a lot of the time, the food they served was NOT at all vegetarian friendly. There was something that I however hadn’t realized. Every day, the lunch ladies made sure there was food for people like me to eat. Every single day. Which was awesome!! Everything was super delicious and I never left the lunch room hungry. This might be naive, but I thought that I would have the same experience here it was a bigger school with more people like me. I figured that they would have more food that I could eat. (More vegetarians= more vegetarian food right?)I was dead weong. Sometimes there would be things that I could eat in the main line but that was often not the case here. I knew that the lunches here were better than the ones at in middle school for most people, but not for me. Then I got this idea of asking my friends on the Cougar advisory council if they could mention something when they had meetings. Each one said that they would definitely say something, so my spirits rose. I waited all that year and the same thing kept happening. At the end of the year; I thought, well maybe they have to wait until next year to change the menu.

Sophmore year was no better. I often was eating chips and drinking orange juice during lunch. It got to the point where my mother decided that I needed to bring lunch to school so that way I could actually have real food, not junk everyday. So the majority of my sophmore year was spent eating food from home because that was the only way that I could eat good food.

Then came junior year, I had kind of gotten tired of eating food from home so I decided to try eating school lunch again. I was so excited because in one of the lines there was alternates that I could eat everyday!!!!! This year was going to be much better than the years pervious. I went through the line full of hope. I left the line happy and excited to try the food. The food was delicious but I was still hungry because there was not much that I could get with it. So I went to buy some extra food. I was back to spending lots of money on food everyday. I am extremely grateful to have this food now, but I would certainly love to have something else to eat as well. And not have to spend like 6 bucks a lunch eating. I got the thing I wanted most in the world. But I never have enough to eat. Am I being whiny?

Guess What!!

So, a long time ago, I was blogging about how stupid driving was. I am now in drivers ed!!! *GASP* I had my first drive on Monday and got a perfect score!! Maybe all my worrying about driving was good! I worried so much that I learned how to drive better. Does that make sense? Probably not, but whatever. I will officially get my certificate on the twenty-eighth of Feburary. I am actually not that nervous about driving anymore but I am still a little worried about getting in to some accident. Anyway, this blog was just about me growing a pair and finally taking drivers education. Kind of makes me sound like a hypocrite doesn’t it?

A Big Problem

I want to take some time to talk about something that seriously affects me. It has nothing to do with being a vegetarian, but I certainly think it is prudent and since this blog is all about thing about me, I want to mention something that is a serious problem in my school. Maybe the US.

I totally understand the importance of being prepared. Being prepared can give you a headstart in life, you can do what you need to in a timely manner. Should we be losing our sanity over prepared? NO. I say this because in our wonderful,mid-sized high school located in the Midwest our teachers and administraters are constantly pressuring us to be prepared. Prepared for college, I mean.       Oh Yes. I am talking about AP classes. Here we have around twenty-eight or so ap classes. These classes take a whole new approach to high school. You have to be in a concentrated mindset to take these classes. There can be eighty+ pages of reading a week and the homework usually isn’t just Question and Answer. They are Question, Answer, Cause, Effect, Meaning. These questions can take a long time to answer completely. Most nights, I stay up until ten-thirty completing AP homework, and then I have homework for other classes. I take multiple AP classes and I am never getting enough sleep.

I respect our teachers and our administration, but I don’t think that it is cool that they are constantly screaming(maybe a little exaggerated, but it certainly feels like it) at us if we don’t take AP. I understand worrrying about us being prepared to go on. But if teachers and faculty are going to drown us in messages of “TAKE AP, TAKE AP”, I think it does more harm than good. I am a pretty good student I would like to thinK. I work hard on everything that I do, and try and give my best in every class, but sometimes I feel like a complete failure because I’m not taking four ap classes this year (in fact I have only taken four AP classes total.). Then there is the pressure of making sure to get involved in as much as possible. Playing sports, getting involved in organizations, and taking AP classes can be a HUGE hassle. I am an example of this in the entirety. I run cross country, take part in Science National Honor Society(and maybe N.H.S), and German club and am in AP US and AP LANG. I love this classes in their entirety, but sometimes I feel as if I am being suffocated with things to do, and it really sucks. Of course, there are the students who manage to take those classes and get everything done, but with too little sleep. These students often stay up way to late trying to get things done for each and every class and that is not healthy.

As I have gone through the years here at my school, I have sensed a growing competition between the students here. One that is pushed by alot of the teachers and administrators. To take as many challenging classes as possible. This competition makes semi-average students feel stupid. I know this first hand. Because I am in Algebra Two and Chemistry, I often feel like I am not as intelligent as my fellow classmates  and it is frustrating. I know that I am not a stupid person but I often feel this way because of the way others look at me when they found out that I am in these classes. Sometimes kids will be surprised and say things like “Really! You’re in Algebra Two?” Then this makes me feel like I’m not adding up to everyones expectations. It feels like crap.

I’m not here to say that teachers are purposefully trying to make us go crazy, but I think we need to look at the pressures that students are being put under each and every day. I think that we need more AP teachers like the ones I have this year, ones that are willing to see things from the side of the student and try and understand what we are going through. Of course the arguement is that we just need to try harder and quit whining. Trust me, I have tried. It is one of those things that is alot easier said than done.

So to the students out there that are feeling like they are about to go crazy, take a deep breath and think, you are just as good as those students in the top ten if you are trying as hard as you possibly can