Alcohol - Some Think It's a Gift From God

 18. What invention would the world be better off without, and why? (Kalamazoo)


My father told me a story about a young girl who first tasted alcohol in her life. He told me that the day she graduated from high school, her father sat her down and brought all kinds of alcohol on the table. He got her the best beer, the best whiskey, the best vodka, the best margarita, the best gin and tonic, the best rum, and the best wines that he could find in his town. She was confused when she saw all these things in front of her. She asked her father why he decided to have all these alcohol bottles set in front of her. He then explained, "If you are ever going to get drunk, I want you to get drunk in front of me first." Confused she asked him why he felt necessary to explain to her. He told his daughter that he understood that she was growing up and she would have cravings and would succumb into peer pressure. He told her that he wanted to be able to trust her and he knew that she would get drunk many times with the friends. But he wanted to make sure that his daughter would get drunk in front of her before doing it anywhere else. He wanted her to experience the way it felt to get drunk with him so that she wouldn't find the need to go experimenting with her friends. She wouldn't feel the need to go and get drunk with her friends as she would already know what it would feel like. He was hoping that she would never feel the need to do it again. She was moving far away from home, to a different continent, where she knew nobody. This girl's father felt that building her foundations would keep her strong and steady during her time away, until she can find herself. 


I asked my father whether the story ended well and the only thing he did was laugh. It took me hours to get the rest out of him. I guessed these stories to be some sort fusion between Aesop's Fables and fairy tales where there was a moral and a happy ending. It was quite the opposite actually. Though it did have a moral, it definitely did not have a happy ending. The girl moved away to the States only to be found dead a year later. She had gone to her end-of-the-year freshman party and had gotten drunk. She was celebrating the end of her freshman year and awaiting the beginning of next year. She was the most drunk girl at that party. Her friends had tried convincing her to let them drive her home, but she insisted that she drive alone. Cautious, her friends drove behind her hoping that she wouldn't get into a car accident. But where would fate let that go? She sped past her friends, and crossed an intersection without seeing that the red light was blinking. She crashed into a car which was coming from the left, killing both the girl and the driver in the other car. 


Writing this story now still sends chills down my spine. It's amazing how much parents do to protect us from all the wrong and bad in the world, where we, children, just go and throw it all out and defy them. Even with caution, some children just find it wild and dangerous to ignore everything parents say to them. There is a reason why they go through all the trouble of teaching us values and morals.


So with this story, if I could ban anything in the world, I would definitely ban the creation and the use of alcohol. Though it's "fun" to drink alcohol occasionally, there have been, there are, and there will be too many times where people can have gotten hurt and can get hurt with excessive alcohol use. We are all humans, and we all want to be a part of something. Sometimes that means we need to do not so good things to be a part of a crowd. Alcohol is one of the things that make you part of the "in crowd" even though it is something that harms an individual, another person, and society. The use of alcohol, even with age restrictions, is too freely available to be a good thing. That are too many lives lost and there are too many ways that it can harm people. In many traditions, it is normal to drink alcohol on a daily basis, in some cultures, it is even used in rituals and sacrifices. There are more number alcohol abuse related deaths worldwide than there are people dying of cancer or AIDS. Though alcohol use is not as negatively effected on your body in comparison to AIDS and cancer, the effects it has on the surroundings is much worse. 


It can kill the individual drinking alcohol if the person drinks too much and it can harm, if not kill, those around them as alcohol use can cause the senses to be disrupted. There are people who have low alcohol tolerance levels, which means that they get drunk quicker than those who have a higher alcohol tolerance. People drinking alcohol the first few times will not realize their alcohol tolerance and can drink so much that the body is being poisoned with the amount of alcohol being taken in. This can slowly cause the body to degenerate and shut down it's organs, finally reaching the brain and killing the individual. The people surrounding those who drink alcohol can be hurt and killed as well. Drunk driving is a major contributor to deaths in the United States. People who drink and drive are not really in control of their senses. They can hallucinate and they can also not be aware of the things going on around them, in which case, they harm those around them. They can crash into a car, crash into a person, crash into a tree, for example, and harm themselves and others. 


Number of Words: 1005

New Set of Blogs: Influences

The proceeding blogs are going to be about people or events that have influenced my life.

Gandhi - An Eye For an Eye

“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”

-       Mahatma Gandhi

            We’ve always been taught that we should love our enemies, respect their choice of disliking us, and let them backstab you because there could be a possibility that we have done something to harm them or hurt them in some way. But we are all human, and there have been times in our lives where we’ve decided to take the best of our emotions, and let it get to us. We’ve gotten to the point where we’ve become so mad that we’ve decided that the only way we can feel better is by taking revenge on those that have hurt us. We’ve decided to either hurt them in the same way, or hurt them in a way, which is much worse. Though it’s not something that should be applauded, it should be let go from time to time. I’m not saying that revenge is something sweet, even though it feels like that for a time being; I’m saying that though it can be excusable sometimes, it should not be a habit and it does make the whole world blind. We become too caught up in the “getting-revenge-process” that we don’t realize how much the hatred has blinded us. This makes us forget the good things in our lives and it makes us feel like the only thing that is good is getting revenge. Mahatma Gandhi is right when he says that taking revenge on one another on makes us forget the good things in front of us, as World War II has shown us that revenge destroys bystanders, not only people involved, and as the war between Harry Potter and Voldemort has shown that we forget the good things in our lives when we are too preoccupied with the idea of revenge.

            World War II, especially the time of the Holocaust, was a period of great loss for the majority of the world. There was the ongoing conflict between the United States and Japan, when the atom bomb had landed in the world. Thousands and thousands of people were killed as United States; with Republic of China, and Great Britain send an ultimatum to Japan asking them to end the war. Japan didn’t listen and continued on its way, and for this reason, the Allies, dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima, and Fat Boy on Nagasaki. Because of the atomic bomb being dropped, there had been a lot of radiation going around the country, concentrated on those two areas. The radiation killed around 166,000 people just within that short time span. Innocent people all over the country were killed because the two country governments were trying to take revenge on each other. They didn’t realize what a major impact it would have on the country as a whole. Around the same time the Holocaust was in place. Hitler was so preoccupied with taking revenge on all the Jews were claimed to be of the Aryan descendants, but weren’t. He massacred people country by country; leaving many places across Europe no choice but to declare war on him. Having no conscience of already killing millions of people, Hitler continued on his way to gain the utmost power that he could possibly gain. He continued killing people and wasn’t even worried about how many he killed. He only cared about gaining his power, and taking revenge of those who were of impure souls and those who were “trying to take his power away.” All of those millions of people who were killed were innocent, but his rage and his vengeful mind only made him angrier, seeking more revenge and destroying the lives of those around him.

            The beginning of the Harry Potter series started with the introduction of a conflict between the “boy who lived,” Harry Potter, and Voldemort, the immortal death master, which would continue until the end of the last book. We all know the story of how Harry’s mother, Lily, protected him from Voldemort with her love, and how Harry and Voldemort always have this connection because of this scar; this has only resulted in the an even bigger conflict, when one has to out do the other. One has to take revenge on the other if they are unsuccessful in taking out the other person. Voldemort’s mignons have stayed with him throughout the book series, and until the last book, he hasn’t been able to notice the loyalty that his Death Eaters have provided for him. The way they’ve stuck with him throughout and the way they’ve carried out his every command, is like a dog connected to his master.  Voldemort wasn’t able to see the power that he withheld because the only thing that he could think about was taking revenge out on Harry. On the other hand, Harry was ungrateful at times. He wasn’t able to see what the fortunate childhood he had grown up with; though he lost his parents, he still had loving family and friends who seemed to sacrifice their lives at every turn for him. He was to preoccupied with destroying Voldemort and taking revenge on him for killing his parents, Harry wasn’t able to have a normal childhood and was suffering from the idea that the only thing he lived for was taking Voldemort down. He wasn’t able to enjoy the company of his friends, as he was always worried about the next danger or the next move that Voldemort was planning. He knew that he had to take Voldemort down, but he wasn’t able to ever get past that, and because of this, he lost the few precious moments that he had as adolescent.

             We are human, and the things we do some times are just unforgivable, but there are times when we know that we need to stop and realize that the things we do are not doing us any good. Gandhi believed that violence and revenge were one of those things. He explained that taking revenge out on everyone that has wronged you is only going to make you blind; it’s going to make your forget your life and only worry about the way you can get someone back, and is going to hurt, not only you, but those around you as well. It is, in these times, when we need to be careful, and when we need to know when to stop and when to hold back. Revenge is one of those times when we need to hold back, and just take a deep breath, and let it go.

1094 words

Martin Luther - Hope and Accomplishment

“Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.”

-       Martin Luther     

            When I first arrived to Woodstock School in second grade, my parents were the ones who made the decision. I was a kid, and I wasn’t really in any position to make a difference. They had asked me what I thought for boarding school, and I told them that it seemed like fun. Though a naïve kid, I was excited to experience the new life that had been set out for me. I arrived to India ready to attend my new school and begin life without my parents. But after the student orientation at the beginning of the school year, it finally struck me that I was going to be away from my parents. They dropped me to Edgehill, the dorm in which I would be living in for the next 3 years, and started saying their goodbyes. It was hard for my mom to let me go, and it was even harder for me to let her go. I didn’t want to be away from my parents; after all, I had lived a life with them and I was not used to living along without them. Tears started rolling down my eyes, and I was wailing telling them not to leave me. But my mother sat down and explained the reason why my dad and her were sending me to Woodstock. She told me that they wanted me to become independent and become someone who could stand up on his own two feet. Though I was small, and didn’t quite understand what she meant, I just nodded by head and continued listening to her. She told me that she hoped I would succeed at Woodstock, and she told me that she hoped I would become the best person I could be here and find myself. I can agree with Martin Luther and say that everything in the world is done by hope, as Solomon from Blood Diamond does everything he can to get his family back during the civil war in Sierra Leone, and as Elaina from Vampire Diaries tries to take on Claus, the vampire from the Original Family, to win back Stephan.

             Blood Diamond is a movie about the Sierra Leone civil war that revolved around the diamond trade. Many rebel groups would capture innocent children and men, after terrorizing their village, so that they can go and hunt for diamonds. The women and young female children and either put into camps or are used as sexual objects to gain pleasure from. Solomon, the main character in the story, had the same thing happen to him. He was captured to search for diamonds in a river, while his family was taken away from him. The first day at the river, he discovered a pink diamond, which was worth more than the other diamonds. Not wanting the general to find out, he secretly went to hide the diamond behind the bushes. The general caught him while the government party army had come to attack that region. Solomon wouldn’t tell him where the diamond was and in return, the general turned his son into a child soldier. Solomon then sought help from Leonardo Dicaprio in the movie, to find his family and get the diamond. Solomon tried everything to get his family back. Solomon hoped to get his family back, and went to any extent. He dodged government armies fighting against the rebellion; he dodged the rebel group armies searching for him trying to find the diamonds just because he hoped to get his family and his whole life back. He did everything in his power to bring back his family. His hope for a normal life drove him to such extremes. This hope made him risk his life to get his family back, made him face the biggest fears of his life, and made him a stronger man by the end of it.

            Similarly, in Vampire Diaries, Elaina is a doppelganger from the ancient vampire era, who is in love with a vampire. When she finds out that he’s a vampire, she explains that she will still love him no matter what. After a series for events, the Original Family come in Mystic Falls and realizes that the doppelganger is among them. They know they need to kill her in order to survive forever. They need Elaina to break the sun and moon curse that binds Nick Claus to both the moon and the sun together. Nick Claus is a vampire by day, and on a full moon he is a werewolf. When the doppelganger is sacrificed, Claus has the ability to shift into a vampire when he wants to. Stephan tricks Claus into thinking that Elaina is dead, where Claus extends a hand of friendship towards Stephan. Stephan follows, and Elaina finds out what has happened. Stephan changes into a bloodsucking vampire, which he isn’t. Elaina is distressed to see this and tries to do everything to get Stephan back to his old ways. Elaina tries to fight Claus by playing tricks on him, unleashing is own father, Michael, who eats vampires as a diet, and takes away Claus’ family just to get Stephan back to the old him. She hopes for a new light, which Stephan will see, and she hopes that he will realize his mistakes and go back to being the sweet, and caring person he is. She hopes that things between the two of them will go back to normal and that they will be happy, and this is why she tries everything to defeat one of the strongest vampires. She wants him back and she hopes for a happy ending, making her more determined to do anything to get him back.

            Hope is something that drives all of us to achieve what we want. It’s something that we dream about and is something that we want in our lives. Hope is something that will drive us to any extent to get what we want. Whether it is my parents hoping that I do well at Woodstock, whether it is Solomon hoping to gain his family back, and whether it is Elaina hoping to show Stephan what a good person he actually is, hope is one thing that makes us all strive for that one thing we want.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/martin_luther.html

number of words: 1059

Semi-autonomy for Eastern Libyans

Ahmed Zubair al-Senussi, a 79 year old man, has recently been elected as the leader for Eastern Libya. Though around 4000 to 5000 people had nominated him to rule the region, when it came time for decision-making, many were apprehensive about his role as leader. Many people feared that someone ruling one region of the country would only result in the division of it. But Senussi explains that he doesn't care about the oil of the country as he believes that the "oil is for all Libyan people." He believes the first thing Libya needs is stability and security in the country after the end of Qaddafi's rule. Al-Senussi explains that Libyans have the right to oil will be written into the constitution. Al-Senussi is also part of the National Transitional Council, and along with the government, has decided to make Libya a decentralized nation with more than local councils, so that all decisions are made on some sort of equal ground with fair votes. With all these good changes happening for the country, leaders are skeptical in heading towards the "international community" with this new idea. People don't want Libya to become divided or undemocratic as this "puts the country in danger."

This article really stuck to me after reading the article about Kony. It's amazing to see the progress some countries are making and the way some countries are moving in a backwards direction. Some countries are self-destructing while others are moving forward after their own disastrous episode in history. The idea of making Libya a decentralized state seems to be a good idea, but after witnessing corruption around the world, it's difficult to say whether Libyan leaders will be loyal to her people. Though Al-Senussi claims that he isn't interested in the oil that Libya withholds, it is difficult to say whether he actually means it or not. The world has already seen to much of governments promising one thing and then doing another. The article states that Al-Senussi was jailed for 31 years after failing to conduct a coup d'etat while Qaddafi was in rule, while gives us a sense of hope that he will do good to Eastern Libya and the country as a whole, as being part of the NTC.

Number of Words: 376

Kony 2012

In October of 2011, the United States claimed the Lord's Resistance Movement, lead by Joseph Kony, to be a terrorist group. Since then, people all around the world have been aware of his atrocities and have tried to take a stand against him; this movement is called "Kony 2012." Hilary Whiteman of CNN claims that, when she met him, Kony was a man "very afraid of meeting people." But she explains that his "shyness" was more paranoia and anxiety than anything else. The story of Joseph Kony goes like this: He was an Ugandan guerrilla group leader, who lead the Lord's Resistance Movement (LRA). He was also a spiritual leader, known as a healer to the Acholi people in northern Uganda. He gained much of his power from a spirit-medium called Alice Lakewena. This is when people started believing in him. Those who believed in Lakewena and Kony, believed that smearing Shea butter in crosses would result in protection from bullets, and also believed that "stones would explode like grenades" (Whiteman). Lakewena fled to Kenya after the government chased her out, but Kony remained and took up the remaining supporters of Lakewena and used it for himself. Many believe that Kony recruited people through his "mystical powers" but then had them captivated by fear. Kony captured children all throughout Uganda; he took in small boys and turned them into child soldiers, and he captured girls and used them for sexual slavery. He conducted brutal attacks on many just to show the that government of Uganda wouldn't be able to protect them. Around the mid-2000s, Kony fled to Sudan and as far as people know, hasn't returned to Uganda yet. Though he is not present in the country, his followers are probably terroizing a group of people all over the country.

Kony claims to be a "spiritual leader" half the time he doesn't pretend to be a "military leader." There are many corrupt governments around the world stealing money from its people, use it for themselves, and live luxurious lifestyles, but I believe that none of that compares to the way Kony has treated innocent people. He stripped innocent children of their childhood and has turned them into deceitful, immoral human beings. He has destroyed lives of those pure, good citizens of the world. Though all these things are disgusting to think about, Kony took advantage of those who believed in him. Whiteman explains that there were many mesmerized by his words and truly believed him to be a leader. There were many who looked up to this disgusting and inhumane man because they thought he would be able to make a difference in the world in which they were living in. They looked up to him to change their lives and help those who weren't able to help themselves. But instead, he took their beliefs as a weakness and terrorized innocent people. Instead of helping them, he turned them into his minions and sabotaged them. After learning about Kony's misdeeds, I can say that I'm proud to have a corrupt government; I would never want to put my freedom in the hands of a man like Kony. 

Number of Words: 527

104. What is your favorite quotation and why? (Princeton)

"People judge you by your performance, so focus on the outcome. Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected." - Steve Jobs


This quote was said by Steve Jobs which makes a lot of people think, wow. What I understood through this saying was that you have to get past all the crap and realize that the outcome is what is mainly important. In the real world people will not care about the second person but rather the first. If for example you don’t do well but you say you worked really hard, it doesn’t matter. You have to meet the standards and achieve what you can and go that extra mile to actually reach your so called outcome. I feel that the first sentence in this quote gives me the idea that at the end of the day my grades are what matter rather than me saying that “I could have done better.” Rather I should do better than making such a useless remark. The rest of the sentence makes me feel good because it wants to make me stand out. You feel like you want to actually achieve something and prove everyone who is putting you down wrong. Steve Jobs says this with a lot of experience and knowledge. He clearly showed that he went through a lot just to achieve what he did. Taking this whole quote you get the picture that you have to work hard to achieve anything and while you are at it there will be up’s and down’s which you will face, but at the end of the day people will look up at you and say that what you did was worth it, and that you are something people look up to.  Steve Jobs said this quote to give people an insight of what life is actually about. When he says , “ Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected” he is clearly saying that people may hate, or be ignorant of you, but you can still achieve what you have set out to do.

 Number of Words: 325

19. Write you own essay question and answer it. (Kalamazoo College/93)

How much do we really know?

We attend elementary school to learn our alphabets and the times tables. We attend middle school to learn about cells in our bodies and about the quadratic formula, and we attend high school to learn about World War II and about literary devices and rhetoric. Most of us pursue further education by going to college and aspiring to become a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer, and the list goes on. But is that all we know? Is that all we are capable of understanding? We try everyday to understand new things from the experiences we go through. We try and learn things from our mistakes and then we try to follow what we've learned. But it feels like we make the same mistakes even after we've "learned from them." Does this really show that we've learned something? Does it show how much we really know?


Physicists try to discover new things about the atmosphere and about the things that surround us. Doctors try to find cures for diseases that are "incurable." Engineers design buildings that are higher than we could have ever imagined - take the tallest building in Dubai for example. Lawyers try to figure out new laws that will benefit those that are "oppressed." But is that how much they really know? Even with these people working hard day in and day out, we still don't know much about the black hole, people are still dying with different diseases, and buildings are still collapsing after natural disasters. Though many, including me, think we know everything that is important to us, there is still so much out there. When we feel like we've figured one thing out, some other thing always needs to be figured out. It's a circle that never ends. 


The world in which we live in today is too vast to figure everything out. Some thing always needs to be discovered. We all live to find out our "soul purpose" in life. For some, it's following the word of God, for others it's helping the needy, and for the rest of the world, it's living a normal life. Whether it's for money, love, power, or simply just live, there is so much more that we can discover. We're just at the tip of the iceberg of knowledge.


Number of Words: 381