Why late arrival is better than early dismissal

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I wake up every day at 7:45 to get ready for school, and the school day for me starts at 8:35. I have a late arrival every day because I had an extra spot in my schedule for it. Because it is my senior I thought why not, I should make things easier on myself for my last year of high school. Last year I would wake up at the latest 6:40 a.m. which isn’t super early compared to the students who have to wake up to take the bus to school. Last year I didn’t have a break in my schedule and the school day felt tedious and repetitive. I would have practice after school, which would make the day even longer.

I have gotten into disagreements with other students on why late arrival is more beneficial than early dismissal. The students who have early dismissal and no after school sports have a stronger case than those who play a sport after school. If I was not involved in after school sports I might have gone with early dismissal, but since I have track and field every day after school, a late start is a much better choice. The people who have early dismissal and sports after school does not have a very good argument. They go home for 8th period, and then come back to school for sports and leave after practice to go back home. It is a massive waste of gas when driving, and there is almost no benefit other than going home and changing there rather than in the locker room. Having a late arrival works better for after school athletes because I do not have to be at the school until 8:35 at the latest. I wake up at 7:30 so I have time to get ready and do some homework that I might not have finished before school. I get to stay up later at night for homework or if I just feel like staying up because I have 50 extra minutes than last year when I had 1st period. It is also proven that teenagers should be getting way more sleep than the school day allows, but late start helps teenagers get more sleep at night.

On the contrary, I understand why people would prefer early dismissal, you can go home and relax way earlier than everyone else. The main argument that I got from many people I talked to about early dismissal is that there is something to look forward to at the end of the day and late start does not have that. To continue with my argument, late start does have something to look forward to. At the very end of the day when I have finished my homework, I usually dread the next day of school, but when I think about the extra sleep that I get in the morning that allows me to stay up later makes me less dreadful. Also, every Wednesday is a late start for the whole school. But when there is no first hour it turns into a double late start. So every Wednesday I get a double late start which means I don’t have to be at school until 9:42. Whereas early dismissal gets shortened for the athletes because the 8th hour is shortened because of the hour is taken away at the beginning of the day on Wednesday. Early dismissal has its benefits, but the late start is overall the best choice of the two.

Book Review

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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

I don’t know what it is like to live somewhere where slaves are. But in the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, it really put into perspective how big of an issue slavery was. I have studied slavery and learned about lynching, but I never really thought about how escaped slaves lived and how or if they made it to their final destination. Huck was the main character and his development throughout the novel made it even more thrilling to read. Jim was with Huck for most of the novel, and he resembled slavery. He was a runaway slave and Huck faked his death to escape his abusive father. They both had one thing in common, they were running away from their fear of society throughout the whole novel. The characters that Huck and Jim’s encounter also helped their character development. The encounter that stuck out to me the most was with the Grangerfords family. This family took Huck in and showed Huck a comfortable way of life that he never experienced before because they had money. But many of the members died because they got into a gun battle with another family who they had been feuding with for a long time. After that encounter, I could feel the impact that family had on Huck, he looked up to many of the family members and witnessing their deaths changed him very subtly, he acted the same as he always did, but from reading his mood felt off and different. With these reasons in mind, this book is a great book to read overall.

Mark Twain wrote many other books like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which happened before The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain’s real name was Samuel Clemens, and during his childhood, he witnesses a lot of violence and death. Some of the actions in the book suggest that Twain had witnessed these things before such as the violence towards slaves. When the was 10 he witnessed a slave die after being stuck with an iron rod. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn book review, the writer addresses the overuse of the N-word, and all of the other slang in the book that could make people believe that it is racist. But in the end, it is up to the reader to determine if it really is meant to express racism or if it is meant o show the journey of an escaped slave and a poor white boy.

I would recommend this book to other students because it is a very interesting book to read. At a certain point in the novel, I felt like I could not put the book down. The tone and voice the author uses to convey Huk and Jim’s characters is very unique, and I haven’t read a book like it before. Some students may find it hard to read because there is a lot of swearing in the book, but I believe that having that language in the novel helped portray where the characters came from and their backgrounds more. It would seem fake if the author did not put this type of language in the book.

Are athletics becoming more important than academics in college?

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To most seniors in high school, looking for a school that has the best football game experience is very important. So when thinking of schools like Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame, and the University of Texas, their successful football achievements are usually what come to mind first. But what about their academic rigor? Does their highly competitive athletics overshadow their academics and do athletes get pulled in for only athletics, and the academic portion is thrown to the side? In today’s society, collegiate athletics takes higher priority than academics which can hurt the future of education in universities.

Student-athletes are said to have two jobs instead of one. They are a student, and an athlete, both each has their own obstacles and challenges. Students have projects and essays due, along with making sure to make it to a science lab and constant studying for tests and quizzes. Athletes have to be present at all practices for however long they have it for and make it to games and play at their very best because most of them are there for athletic scholarships. With these two jobs combined, it can become very stressful. But bigger schools set out to help their athletes as much as they can, with study tables with teammates, logging how many hours they spend there or at the library as well. Some teams get their own tutors for whatever subject they need them in, or for reading through essays. Athletes get a plethora of tools handed to them to help them become better students. But these tools can be taken advantage of. There have been cases where tutors have been found writing student athletes essays for them because in order to stay on an NCAA D I team, your GPA has to be a minimum of a 2.3. With a GPA requirement that low, are athletes really learning, or are they doing the bare minimum to stay eligible to stay on their team? Furthermore,  the University of Texas has one of the best football programs in the country, but their team average is a GPA of 2.89. Having a good football program doesn’t make a university great, the education the university provides is the most important factor. But universities that have outstanding sports programs are what ultimately pull students in, even if they are not involved with a sport. So students who are looking for academics could feel like they are not as important to the school as student-athletes.

Universities spoil their athletes. They spend millions of dollars on new facilities. Clemson in 2015 reported from the Chicago Tribune that “The people in charge of Clemson University’s athletic department have not settled on a design for the miniature golf course they are building for their football team, but they know it will have just nine holes, not 18. That will leave room for the sand volleyball courts, laser tag, movie theater, bowling lanes, barbershop and other amenities planned in the $55 million complex that South Carolina’s second-largest public university is building exclusively for its football players.” (Chicago Tribune) Student-athletes get major perks for playing on a college team. This is part of what draws athletes in, the big shiny new facilities are what students see on tours of universities before making a decision. Universities spend so much on their athletic facilities and teams, what is left for the non-athlete students? The University of Clemson has its notorious football stadium, but the rest of its campus is bleak. They have their football program that creates the draw to go to their school. Education needs to become the draw for schools because that is what you are going to college for. Education needs to be the reason for going to a school, not the athletic programs provided there. 

The draw for higher education is being overshadowed by athletics. A solution to help education become the main reason for going to university is to reduce the number of athletic scholarships given out per year and allow for more money to be spent on educational facilities. Football stadiums do not need bigger jumbotrons, new educational buildings need to be built, and old ones need to be expanded and updated. Regular students are being tossed to the side to make way for athletes, which should not be the priority of universities.

The vaccination debate

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There is a growing trend of many people that have taken the role of being an anti-vaxxer, or someone who is against vaccinations, or more particularly against vaccinating their children. This is extremely concerning to me because vaccinations are what have protected humans from deadly epidemics since the 18th century. Because of this, I believe that every child should be vaccinated. Although anti-vaxxers have many reasons why they choose to not vaccinate their children, the main reasons are: personal beliefs, safety concerns, religious reasons, and the desire for more information about vaccinations from their health care provider (Chephra McKee, paragraph 1). Many parents question the safety of vaccines on infants, especially giving a child multiple vaccinations at one time. Many people also believe that there could be short term to long term effects from vaccinating their infants such as autism, brain damage, and behavioral problems. Parents have the right to be concerned. Although vaccinations do far more good than bad.

 Vaccines have saved millions of lives since they were invented in the 18th century. I am seeing more and more news outlets covering the topic of whether children should be vaccinated or not. Personally, I have been vaccinated, as have most kids of my generation. A major problem is that if the number of children that are not vaccinated continues to rise, we could be on the verge of another epidemic. Using smallpox as an example, before vaccinations were invented, the virus killed around 300 million people in the 20th century alone (Colette Flight, paragraph 1). To put that into perspective, 327.2 million people live in the United States today, so that would be around 91% of our population that would have died from smallpox (if the smallpox epidemic only occurred in the U.S.)  in the 20th century. Americans under 50 today have never seen a viral outbreak. They haven’t lived through what it is like to be alive during these horrific epidemics. They weren’t alive during the raids in the middle of the night where they force vaccinated the healthy and removed the people infected with a disease to quarantine locations. Even babies and small children (Alexandra Marvar, paragraph 1). An example of this is the North Brother Island in New York, where police officers and doctors would send people infected with smallpox to the hospital on the island. People on this island were isolated from everyone else. They were forced away from their families onto a remote island because they had a disease that they couldn’t control if they got it or not. But now, people are choosing to not vaccinate their kids, with no fear of another epidemic happening. Approximately 25% of those infected with smallpox on North Brother Island would end up dying. The people that are claiming that vaccines are “dangerous” need to think about if the side effects are more threatening than the diseases the vaccinations are preventing. 

In today’s society, where we do not see virus outbreaks of epidemic proportions. It can be easy to say that we should not vaccinate our children because of the four reasons stated earlier. The major problem is if we stop vaccinating, diseases that are currently considered eradicated can make a comeback. With the larger population that we have now, and the greater number of cities where diseases are more quickly spread, the higher the number of fatalities that would be seen. The deaths could be far above what was seen in the past.

Schools are another area where illnesses and diseases are easily spread. Recently in New York, schools were forcing children who were not vaccinated to get vaccinated in order to attend school(Sharon Otterman, paragraph 2). It made sense for New York schools to do this because if you think about how easily the common cold is spread within a school, what would happen if a highly contagious disease, like smallpox, was being passed around schools? It is vital that schools all around the United States follow in New York’s footsteps. When you compare the common cold that is constantly spread throughout schools to the possibility of the spread of a highly contagious disease, like smallpox, in all schools all around America. What would be there to prevent the disease from spreading if the students are not vaccinated? We want to keep our world healthy and keep the past epidemics in the past. The only way to do that is by vaccinating children.

Vaccinations have saved millions of lives, and people are starting to doubt them because of their fears that vaccines are harming their children. Most people alive today have never seen a polio or smallpox epidemic. Otherwise, they would be able to put into perspective the very small number of children that are harmed by vaccines versus the number that have been saved. In the conclusion of her study Elaine Miller said, “The evidence for the safety and the effectiveness of vaccines routinely given to children and adults in the United States is overwhelmingly favorable.” (Elaine Miller, conclusion). The anti-vaxxers are right to question things like; What ingredients are put in vaccines? What age should children be vaccinated at? Should we combine vaccines or spread them out? These problems should be researched and if possible, answers found. But until we have more answers, there is no doubt that vaccinations have saved millions of more lives than they have harmed, and young children should continue to be vaccinated.

 

Works cited

“BBC – History – British History In Depth: Smallpox: Eradicating The Scourge.” Bbc.co.uk. N. p., 2019. 

Web. 16 Oct. 2019.

Miller, Elaine R. et al. “Deaths Following Vaccination: What Does The Evidence Show?.” Vaccine 33.29 (2015): 3288-3292. Web. 17 Oct. 2019.

 

McKee, Chephra, and Kristin Bohannon. “Exploring The Reasons Behind Parental Refusal Of Vaccines.” The Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics 21.2 (2016): 104-109. Web. 16 Oct. 2019.

 

“Get Vaccinated Or Leave School: 26,000 N.Y. Children Face A Choice.” Nytimes.com. N. p., 2019. Web. 16 Oct. 2019.

 

Marvar, Alexandra. “How New York Separated Immigrant Families In The Smallpox Outbreak Of 1901 .” Smithsonian. N. p., 2019. Web. 16 Oct. 2019.

Why dont people watch more cross country meets?

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The gun goes off, you stride out with many people squished next to you. You fight for a good position, hoping it will be enough to get you on pace for the rest of the race to come. You make it to the first mile, and you’re still high on adrenaline. You keep your head high, remembering all of the practices that have led up to this race, and you accelerate. You’re nearing the end, your legs are feeling stiff, and your arms are more of a burden to move than before. Your torso is cramping, yelling at you to stop, and you see the end in the distance. You push for your final kick of the race, passing those who started to kick too soon and are slowing down, and you finish knowing you gave it your all. Cross country is the most exciting, thrilling, and emotional sport to watch. Someone might say “Isn’t it just running?” but, cross country is more than “just running”, it is entertaining, empowering, and a rollercoaster of emotions. I’m not just talking from a runner’s perspective, I have been on the sidelines of many cross country meets, and nothing compares to the thrill of cheering on cross country runners. The best way to enjoy watching cross country is to understand what athletes go through to compete at their very best.

The average mile time for an everyday person is about 10 minutes. According to Mile split, the nations leading cross country news platform states  “Some of the fastest high school men’s times would be around 13-14 minutes for 3 miles…”(Milesplit US). That is an average of a little above 4-minutes per mile for a three-mile race. So how do these athletes get to this level of conditioning? Well for starters, every day for practice, they do what other sports use as punishment, to make themselves better as runners. For their meets, they use those practices to go as fast as they can, for about three miles depending on the course. Each course is its own monster. Some have gigantic hills, sharp, muddy turns, and sometimes the occasional water hole that runners have to either try and jump over or trudge their way through it. These athletes need to prepare for how they run each course, they need to develop a plan of action. If they were to sprint the first mile, they would burn out and fall behind. They need to have a game plan of how they are going to make moves on each course, and when to accelerate and when to make pace checks to make sure they are not going too fast. Not only does running require physical toughness but it also requires mental toughness. 

Running is a physical and mental game. Running at a very fast pace is painful, your whole body hurts, you can get cramps, and if you are not hydrated or not warmed up, you could be at risk for serious injuries. So how can cross country runners stay in their sport and enjoy it? Mostly because the very best of the best have a very particular personality, where they understand that putting themselves through painful workouts can help them improve and get them to where they want to be to succeed. No one wants to do fast mile repeats on a track, but these athletes know that this is a way that they can get better and improve upon themselves. That is where the mental aspect comes into play. For every workout, runners need to be prepared to hurt, but in the best way possible. As a cross country runner, I have the hardest time mentally than physically. Especially during the races. If you go out too fast, or you don’t go out fast enough, it can mess with how you feel for the rest of the race. Knowing that no matter what, the races are going to hurt, but pushing to the limit and being able to finish knowing everything was put on the line, is the most important and best part of the sport. Other factors, such as weather conditions, also play into how you go into a race mentally. It is very important as a runner to stay focused on what to achieve, and not let these factors get in the way. Knowing what the athletes go through for every race, really puts into perspective how hard it is to be a runner, but also how watching a cross country race can be so thrilling at the same time.

Cross country is not for everyone. To be a runner, they need to be physically strong and conditioned and have a special personality to get through the mental aspect of the sport. People who do not understand cross country have a hard time watching it because all they see is running. When someone understands all the aspects of the sport, they can come to enjoy watching it to its fullest. 

Works cited:

“United States High School Boys Rankings | Cross Country 2019 Leaders.” MileSplit United States. N. p., 2019. Web. 3 Oct. 2019.

Is Dance a Sport?

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People dance all the time. They dance at parties, they also dance in the car with their friends, and they can dance in the stands of their school Friday night football game when they play music over the loudspeaker. That’s just typical, every day, fun, dancing and it isn’t the sport of dance. Dancers train and develop conditioning, and techniques like any other athlete does for their sport. Which goes to show, that dance is a sport.

People would be more likely to say dance is an art, rather than a sport. But I would beg to differ. The official definition of a sport defined by Oxford Dictionary states “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” (Oxford). Therefore, dance is a sport, because it involves physical exertion and skill, and individuals and teams can compete in dance. Dance requires years of rigorous training to be able to perform and compete at the highest level. For example, soccer players train for years to develop their foot skills to be able to play in a game, and the conditioning to be able to run at their fullest, and the same goes for dance. The article Is Dance a Sport?, states “Soccer players have to train before games to be able to run on the field for long periods of time.  Swimmers have to be prepared to do multiple laps without getting too winded. Similarly, dancers have to condition themselves to dance for long periods of time.”(Is Dance a Sport).  Dancers train to condition themselves to be able to dance at the highest of levels for however long their performance lasts. They train on an average of 4 hours per day, for any number of days they are at practice per week. They must train for the skills they need to perform on the stage, and the conditioning to do this for however long they need per performance. Therefore, dance is a sport because of the physical commitment and exertion a dancer has to make.

 Dance requires perfection of technique, much like any other sport. For example, soccer players have to train many years to develop their foot skills and techniques to help improve their play. Likewise, there are many techniques that a dancer needs to perfect before they perform them. Dancers spend the majority of their time in practice and rehearsal perfecting the technique of their moves. Dance requires hours and hours of technical perfection to have the dancer performance-ready. Without proper technique training, a dancer has a risk of serious injury. Because of the many leaps and jumps dancers perform, they need to learn how to take off for the leap or jump, perform their leap or jump in the air, and be able to land with their legs and feet turned out, without getting injured. This shows the amount of work and effort that has to be put into a dancers technique to make their performance look flawless. The time to perfect a dancers technique can also be added to the reason of why dance is a sport.

Dance is a sport because of the rigor of training to be able to dance in a performance. Dance requires strength, stamina, and technique to be able to make their performances look flawless. Other sports like soccer, require the same type of training, but the training is used in a different way. With these attributes in mind, dance can be categorized as a sport. 

Works cited links:

http://celebritydancestudio.com/new-blog/2018/4/3/is-dance-a-sport-yesand-heres-why

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/sport_1

All about me!

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I am a runner. Running has been the most important thing in my life. I have learned many things about myself through the sport of track and field. I have always been drawn towards running ever since I realized I could outrun most of the boys playing tag in elementary school. I knew that 7th grade was the first year I could join the school’s track and field team and really compete. I will admit, I had a bit of ego for a 13-year-old. At my first track practice, I realized I was not the fastest on the team. So I realized from that point on to really focus on running, and to put more effort in than those around me. This sport taught me that things that you want don’t come easy, and you have to really put your mind to something if you want to achieve it. I like to compare my life to that of running spikes. In order to run with your spikes, you need to screw the spikes into the bottom of the shoe. You need to put that little extra effort to be able to run with your spikes on so you can run just a little bit faster. Those spikes represent the little extra things to get the most out of life. Running with no spikes screwed in the shoes would result in no extra grip on the track, causing you to slip while you run and do not have the advantages of the other people who screwed the spikes in their shoes. If you don’t put in the extra things in life to get where you want to be, then you will not be successful as you would aspire to be.
Image result for running

I am a student. The school has been very important to me. I enjoy going to school and seeing my friends. I like to learn new things every day. I like to test my creativity and see what new lengths my mind can go to. My favorite topic to learn about is probably any science. I have had my best school experiences with science labs. I love to look through microscopes at tissues and cells. I have always been fascinated with the structure of them and how they work. I love to learn about the human body and how it works

These two main things demonstrate who I am as a person, I like to define myself as a runner, and a biology nerd. These things are very important to me in my life and I would not be myself without them.