L-O-V-E

While reading the assigned “I believe” statements for our homework last class, a specific quote from the work “I Agree with a Pagan” by Arnold Toynbee, really stood out to me, “Love is what gives life meaning and purpose.” This quote then got me thinking, how could one come right out and state so exactly what gives our lives meaning. It was almost as if he had no doubt at all. He mentions that this is also the basis of the Bible and in God’s teachings. Which I can quite positively agree with.
I then moved to question whether or not love is the sole purpose of life. I then started to realize that love is everywhere. When one first uses the word love, I first jump to think, true love, passionate love, the love you feel between you and the person that is meant for you. However, that is just one of several types of love. There is then the love that you feel towards you family and the love you feel towards your friends. Another different type of love is the love we feel towards something we are a part of, such as our country and school.
Then love can even move on to mean, the way we feel for a certain tv show, or sports team. Love is really everywhere. It is more in our lives than I realized until questioning. So I can most definitely agree with the quote from Toynbee, love really is the meaning of our lives. We go through so many different ways of showing and expressing it. I am sure anyone who has had their heart broken knows what it feels like to lose love. Some say that the heart break feeling is one of the worst feelings we can even experience. For me this has definitely been true. I have not experienced anything more painful then that of a heart break. This coming from a girl who has had 6 surgeries, and taken a line drive shot to the face.
So this leads me to my next point, for me the word “love” is not simply something I throw out there or take with a grain of salt. I treat the word love like I do the word hate, I only use them when I actually mean them. Once again this coming from experience, I have had both of those words used towards me when someone did not mean either of them. The pain of finding out someone used the word love when they did not mean it hurt just as much when they said the word hate and I took it as how they truly felt.
Due to this I make sure I do not use either of the words if I do not truly mean them. I would not want to put anyone through either of those pains. However back to what I mentioned earlier with the different ways the word love can be used, it is fine to tell your friend you love them, because they know you are not telling them you love them romantically. Even still with this type of love I still try to make sure I use it only when I mean it.
All this thinking about love reminds me of the song “What is Love?” when I am singing along to the song I am not thinking of the meaning. But when I sit back and think about it, this is what comes to mind. If someone were ever to ask me what I thought love was I would tell them most simply it’s a feeling. To me the complexity of love is way too much to sum up in a few sentences. Love is defined in several ways, it depends on which “love” you’re talking about.
For me friendship love is simply caring about that person. However romantic love is when you make yourself second to that person, when you think of them first and yourself secondly. Well at least that is what I have come to find. These are just two of many different types of love, and so I am sure you can see how that might take more than a couple sentences. How could just a small, four letter word, have so much meaning and complexity behind it? I think the answer lies in the quote above, it is because “love is what gives life meaning and purpose.” Because if you really think about it, what would the world, or our lives be like without it? Yes, love brings us heart break, but for me I would endure years and years of heart break as long as I got to have at least one day which was completely full of love.
Love is a crazy feeling, because when you do truly love someone you do not hold grudges, and no matter how badly you fight with that person it does not matter because at the end of the day you love them and you will do anything for them, including giving your heart to them and letting them break it. Love is the sole purpose of life and I would not want to leave this world without saying that I loved and I was loved back.

In the 10th grade I had to memorize a sonnet, and I believe it goes very well with what I am talking about.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments, love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come,
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom:
If this be error and upon me proved,I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

William Shakespeare; Sonnet 116

157 Food I Despise

My parents had a very hard live raising me due to my hatred of food. Well it’s not that I hate food but that I am an extreme picky eater. Most of the time when my parents cook, I don’t eat, or I find something that I like and that is easy to make. I am not exactly sure why this is, sometimes there are foods that I like, but I only like them certain ways. For instance, cheese, if someone were to ask me if I liked cheese than I have no idea how I would answer, when I order tacos I do not want cheese, but I like cheese on my pizza and cheese on my burgers. This goes the same for a lot of other foods too. However I took the time to come up with a list of foods I just straight up despise.

1. Mac and Cheese
2. Raisins
3. Fish
4. Tuna
5. Shrimp
6. Lobster
7. Crab
8. Clams
9. Any other sea foods
10. Brussel Sprouts
11. Peppers
12. Beets
13. Squash
14. Corn dogs
15. Kiwi
16. Guacamole
17. Fig Newton’s
18. Dots (candy)
19. Sushi
20. Calamari
21. Water
22. Milk
23. Tomato Juice
24. Tomato soup
25. Chicken noodle soup
26. Peas
27. Sauerkraut
28. Anchovies
29. Mushrooms
30. Sour Cream
31. Jalapenos
32. Cereal
33. Oatmeal
34. Omelets
35. Grape Fruits
36. Moon pies
37. Butterscotch
38. Hard Candies
39. Pie (all)
40. Whip cream
41. Cool whip
42. Chocolate cake (breaded part)
43. Strawberry Ice Cream
44. Cotton candy flavor
45. Ice Tea
46. Cole Slaw
47. Sweet Potatoes
48. Cranberry Sauce
49. Stuffing
50. Corn Bread
51. Burritos
52. Salmon
53. Lamb
54. Deer Meat
55. Yogurt
56. Dragon Fruit
57. Baby Food
58. Rollo’s
59. Limes
60. Pop Tarts
61. Relish
62. Honey
63. Honey Mustard
64. Turkey Dogs
65. Tofu
66. Blue Cheese
67. Orange Juice
68. Chocolate Milk
69. Energy Drinks
70. Asparagus
71. Turnips
72. Spinach
73. Propel
74. Turkey meat on the bone
75. Chicken Breast
76. Spam
77. Rabbit Meat
78. French Dressing
79. Protein shakes
80. Protein bars
81. Energy bars
82. Black Coffee
83. Poached Eggs
84. Deviled Eggs
85. Eggs Benedict
86. Sunnyside up (Eggs)
87. Roast
88. Casseroles
89. Zucchini
90. Sweet and Sour Chicken
91. Egg rolls
92. Meatball Subs
93. Artichokes
94. Pudding
95. Crab Cakes
96. Sardines
97. Curry
98. Marshmallows
99. Pickled Eggs
100. Pigs in a blanket
101. Fruit Dip
102. Taco Salad
103. Stuffed Grape Leaves
104. Paprika
105. Calf’s brains
106. Calzones
107. Cocoanut
108. Vanilla Wafers
109. Prunes
110. Prune Juice
111. Shortbread
112. Applesauce
113. Dried Fruit
114. Fruit Snacks
115. Edible Flowers (And yes I have tried them)
116. Roast Goose
117. Egg Salad
118. Buttermilk
119. Carrot Cake
120. Pound Cake
121. Gingerbread
122. Fig
123. Jell-O
124. Jelly
125. Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
126. Sugar free anything
127. Ginger Snaps
128. Cannoli
129. Graham Crackers
130. Apricots
131. Date Nuts
132. Plums
133. Tarts
134. Popcorn Balls
135. Duck
136. Filet Mignon
137. Dumplings
138. Freezer Meals
139. Vegetable Lasagna
140. Enchilada
141. Green Olives
142. Mock Duck
143. Cool Ranch Doritos
144. Rye Bread
146. Whole Grain Anything
147. Soy Milk
148. Okra
149. Yams
150. Cottage Cheese
151. Lima Beans
152. White Chocolate
153. Gooseberries
154. Papayas
155. Pomegranates
156. Salt Water
157. Molasses

These are all of the foods and drinks I could think of which I would never even dream about touching. My poor parents have struggled with coming up with dinners that suit me and my younger sister. I am sure when I am older karma will happen and I will end up with kids that are pickier than I.

What is IDST?

What is IDST? This is the question I get every time I tell someone my major. I then follow that question up with it is Interdisciplinary Studies; however the confused expression on their faces does not change. So I then have to go into explaining something that is actually extremely complex or trying to find a simple definition to satisfy their question. Eventually after repeating this process over and over again it starts to become quite aggravating.
My simple version of what it is and why I am majoring in it is, well it is the only thing offered that supports what I want to do. Virginia Tech along with every other university now, in Virginia, does not have an Elementary Education Undergraduate major. It is only offered in Graduate school, and one must obtain a Master’s degree in order to become an elementary school teacher in the state of Virginia. So I must major in Interdisciplinary Studies, and this isn’t even very short at all.
Those who do know what Interdisciplinary studies at Virginia Tech is know that it is taking two or more minors and making that a major. What they do not know is that IDED falls under Interdisciplinary Studies. IDED is a short way for saying the Education and Social Degree option, which is a major, created by Joan Wilson, who is still a faculty member and advisor at the school. Once Virginia Tech lost the undergraduate elementary education major she made up a major which satisfies those undergraduates who are trying to pursue a career in elementary education. This is not two minors put together; it is an actual major, which was placed under Interdisciplinary Studies.
Though I have mentioned what Interdisciplinary Studies is at Virginia Tech I have not explained exactly what IDST is. If one breaks down the word Interdisciplinary there is the word discipline and inter, however I would like to think of the word as integrating. So this explains what Interdisciplinary means, it is integrating different disciplines. To be an Interdisciplinarian, one looks at complex phenomena such as poverty or terrorism and they come up with a solution to the problem by integrating different disciplines and bringing in insights from all angles which apply. This is different from someone who studies in specifically one discipline, such as Biology, they do not simply look at the problem from only a biological aspect but they may bring in psychology, English, and math.
So what? Now that I have explained what Interdisciplinary means, so what? Interdisciplinary is the best way to look at a problem, not just looking at it from one aspect or discipline but combining them all to come up with one consensus. Interdisciplinarians look at the problem first and decide “what disciplines would be best to help solve this?” They care for the problem first and then take into account which disciplines apply, and then come up with a basic conclusion by integrating all of the ideas, in order to best serve the issue. If one single discipline were to look at the problem and try to solve it, they would fail, seeing as they do not have insight from other disciplines in order to come up with the best solution. Also if one is to take multiple disciplines and each makes their own assumptions on how the problem might best be solved, and not integrate or look at the problem its self first than they will also fail. Interdisciplinarians are very important in helping to create the best conclusion. I am not bashing disciplines because without discipline there would not be interdisciplinary, I am simply saying that we must pull all disciplines applicable and integrate them to best solve complex phenomena.

"A Tuti Ta"

One thing most people do not know about me is what I have the greatest passion for, and that is children. Ever since I was a young child “school” was always my favorite game to play. I could play school for hours, I loved setting up the classroom, coming up with a fake class list, making worksheets, and even hanging up posters and making bulletin boards, and that was only the preparation. I would then take forever reading to a fake class, teaching them about science, math, history, or English, for hours!! My voice would sometimes even become sore. This game started to turn into reality when I was in the fourth grade.
Every summer starting in the fourth grade I would go into the elementary school where my mom worked and I attended and I would help all the teachers set up their classrooms, sometimes it was sharpening pencils or laminating and cutting out posters but I didn’t mind I loved doing all of it. The teachers started catching on and would beg for my help each year, I loved it, and I felt so wanted. Once I got into high school I stopped working at the school and only went in to visit when my mom wanted me to help out with events. I started to drift away from the career of a teacher and was looking into other things I might want to do, such as, acting.
In my junior year of high school, however I started to notice that whenever I went somewhere, where there were kids I was always around them, more so than adults. I started to realize that I enjoyed their company a great deal. I also saw that acting wasn’t a realistic major and that teaching is something I could positively see myself doing. So I took an Early Childhood class, in this class we would go into a head start class with four year olds and we would come up with lesson plans and teach them. The head start classroom was in our school and so it was very accessible. I enjoyed the class so much, I loved making lesson plans and both my teacher and I found that I was very good at it, and more creative than I had ever thought.
Being a teacher in the head start classroom was very natural to me, even the head start teachers commented on how good I was with the children. In my senior year I got to take the Early Childhood 2 class, where it was the same only we were focusing more on how to be a daycare manager. We still got to go in and work with the kids, and make up lesson plans too. This year was especially significant on the influence of me becoming a teacher because of one specific child. Carl was the wild child of the classroom, and was always mis behaving, he got worse as the year went on. He was disrespecting the teachers and would not listen to them. One day I had gone into the classroom and had found Carl and was playing with him, he was pretending that he had lost his straw to his drink when really he had hid it behind him; however I went along with it. Later the head start teachers had told my teacher that Carl hadn’t played like that with a teacher in a long time. When I found this out it surprised me and made me wonder “why me?”
For the lesson plans we always had to teach the kids one song and read them a story every time we went into the head start. I had learned a song from my experiences working in a kindergarten class though another class called Teacher Cadet that I was also enrolled in. The song was called “A Tuti Ta” it was very strange, but the kids seemed to love it. So I took it to the head start class, and I came to find that they too absolutely loved the song. The kids every day after that requested that we sing that song every time we came. We didn’t but we did do it very often. One day Carl’s case worker came up to me and asked me for the lyrics to the song, she said that he loved it and it was about the only thing that would get him to listen to her or the teachers, she said it was all he talked about, and he would go around singing what he remembered from the song all of the time. This touched me, I felt so special that my simple idea to teach them the song had had the impact it did on Carl.
Carl and the Early Childhood class really made me want to teach. I want to feel like that all the time, what other job rewards you in such an amazing way? I can’t wait until the day when I have my own kindergarten class and I am teaching them “A Tuti Ta.”

Softball

14 years of my life have been devoted to one sport, softball. Due to this immense amount of time spent participating in one sport I have learned a mass variety of technical lingo which is specific to the sport of softball. It is interesting to think that one does not know all that I know about softball because it is so natural to me. I have grown up in the world of softball. My dad has been my coach many a time and my mom always there on the side line as a supporter and cheerleader. I started the trend and it also got passed along to my younger sister who has been playing softball for 10 years. Even my best friend plays softball, and so it is weird when I come across someone who does not understand what the “drop third strike” rule is or the difference between a bunt and a slap.
I love the world of softball and it saddens me to think that I might lose it someday. I hope to pass it on to my children in the future, and maybe be their coach. I would love to pass this world and knowledge on to my kids and maybe someone else’s kids by being a coach. I would hate to think that 14 years of learning all that I have had gone to waste. I also would enjoy having my kids gain the experiences from softball that I have.
One of my most memorable experiences while playing softball has happened while I was a part of the Dominion High School softball team. The last few weeks of my senior season were the highlight of my softball career. Our team had grown so close to each other and we were getting along great. We had our inside jokes such as whenever we felt we had been robbed of a hit we would yell out “Bojangles.” The most spectacular win we had was the first playoff game of the season we were the 6th seed out 8 teams and not expected to win against the 3rd seed who just so happened to be our school rivals. We amazingly pulled out an awesome win, after we had been tied the entire game 0-0, we scored the first run in the seventh inning and came back to stop the other team from scoring to end and win the game 1-0 letting us advance to the next round, despite what everyone had thought would happen. I would like to think of this as the largest upset of the season.
Games like that are the reason I love the sport, and why I have stuck with it for 14 years. Its passion, and heart that drives one to stick with a sport for so long. Feeling the unity of a team and to pull out an amazing win as we did is something I hope everyone gets to enjoy at least once in their lives. I feel like everyone should experience playing a sport or being on a team of sorts during their life time, I would recommend softball, but that’s just me, there are many other sports out there and one does not have to be amazingly skilled at the sport to enjoy what it brings to life.