I choose neither

 

Barack Obama or Mitt Romney? Democrat or Republican?

To vote or not to vote?

I understand that it is my duty as a citizen of the United States to get in that little booth and just pick one come November. But I find it hard to come to a conclusion about if I actually want to vote for either candidate.

A good percentage of the campaign commercials out there right now are depicting each man as an evil, self absorbed, power hungry maniac. Let it be known that I'm not having this dilemma due to these hypocritical commercials. It's because I agree and disagree with certain parts of each candidate's vision for the future.

Let's start with Mitt Romney. To be honest, I find it hard to like him. I was raised in a Democratic home and I'm not sure if I'm biased or if I really just don't like his sense of humor. What with the whole, "47% of Americans are lazy bums who only rely on government handouts," thing. You don't insult half the country. That's bad strategy.

When it comes to his economic stance, I like him a bit more. He knows what he's talking about, I just need to get a handle on some statistics to be certain that his plans to decrease the debt will be successful.

President Obama made me cry. A good cry mind you, when I listened to his acceptance speech at the Democratic national convention. I felt proud to be an American, I felt hopeful, I felt like voting for Obama. Now I'm not so naive that I'm going to vote for a guy because he can deliver a kick-butt emotion-filled speech. I need to know that he's going to take care of me when I'm trying to get a job after college, and overall set the course for economic growth in our country.      

I'll be looking at a few different topics, topics that I believe are crucial and important in my decision making process. 

Welfare:

Romney- Recipients should go to work immediately

Obama- Needs to do more for encouraging recipients to go to work and not be dependent.

There's one for Romney, I am definitely on board for helping the poor and less fortunate, but I think there are a lot of problems with our current welfare system. I've seen too many families buy endless carts of junk food with food stamp cards. While playing on their iPhones mind you. We need to be helping those who really need it, we need to be giving welfare to those who are going to be responsible with our tax payers dollars.   

Abortion:

Romney- Only legal in cases of rape, incest, or pertaining to a mother's health.

I applaud him for standing by pro-life, but you can't say "It's alright sometimes." The Bible clearly says that abortion is wrong. I'd like it if he were backing his beliefs 100%. He also has been known to flip-flop on these type of issues, depending on the vote he wishes to get.

Obama-  Pro-choice. No, just not okay with me.

Education:

Obama- His plans involve the goal of having nearly all Americans to receive at least one year of formal education beyond high school. He's spoken about how he will do the best he can to make it easier for every student to go to college, and not be in debt for the rest of their life because of their student loans.

My only concern is that there still won't be enough job creation when my generation wants to enter the workforce. 

Romney- When researching this topic for Romney, I didn't find a lot of answers. "He will equip state leaders to achieve the change that can only come from commitment and action at the local level. He will also ensure that students have diverse and affordable options for higher education to give them the skills they need to succeed after graduation." Sounds nice, but how exactly is all of that going to work out?

The environment: 

Obama- While he was in office he has more than doubled production of renewable energy from wind and solar, while investing in over 15,000 clean energy projects across the country.

Romney-Would cut funding for clean energy, including ending the tax incentive for wind energy, which could cost 37,000 American jobs. Meanwhile, he would continue providing billions for big oil companies. 

Global warming is real. We are using fossil fuels recklessly and foolishly, and there will be consequences. We need to treat the Earth God put us on with respect. I'm not a being a tree-hugger, I'm being practical. 

At this point I'm literally half and half. I know I can't have the perfect candidate, nobody's perfect. But I wish one of them would do or say something to solidify my decision, to tip the scale so to speak. 

I don't want to go in there and pick the wrong guy, what if he majorly screws up and I regret my decision? 

I've got about a month and a half to nail down who I'm going to choose, but to be perfectly honest I might write in Chuck Norris. He would get stuff done.

Philippians 1:9-10

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,”

Paranoia

Here is a top five list of things that make me paranoid:

1. The foreign ladies at nail salons. You know that they are talking about you.

2. Walking up the stairs at school with a skirt on. There's most definitely some little perv under there.

3. When taking off in an airplane and you've seen the first Final Destination movie and everything seems like a sign that you are all going to die.

4. Hearing your name in a conversation and thinking, oh my goodness they are talking about me.

5. Sending a text about someone to someone else, then freaking out that you might have accidentally sent it to that person.

6. Thinking that people will hate my last minute, crammed for time blogs

I know that was six things, not five. I knew you'd notice my flaws. That's number seven.

Vanity

Vanity: Definition:
Excessive pride in one's appearance or accomplishments; to be conceited.
In other words, you think you're all that.

You're so pretty!
Thank you, I've worked really hard to be born of my parents who have supplied me with half of their genetic information and somehow created a physically attractive offspring.

But no, nobody says that. 

I've been racking my brain trying to figure out the appropriate response to a compliment that no one has ever once actually done anything to deserve. "Thank you" is most definitely out. I feel as though thanking someone after a compliment is such a weird concept. Doesn't it make more sense for us to just reciprocate their actions and say something that we like about them? And why not even take it a step further and compliment something we like about their personality, not their appearance. We are all so caught up in looks that we forget that God spent time making you the person you ARE. I'm almost certain that for every one, the way they look was just a last minute, nonchalant decision, that wasn't ever meant to be dwelled upon nearly as much as it has.  

When faced with nothing but a vain and shallow compliment, before offering a vain and shallow response, I believe that we should think about what we should really see in each other.

1 Peter 3-4
"Don't be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes.You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God."

Shoutout to all my Jesus freaks

There are a few select places in the world where someone can feel completely safe and accepted. Somewhere where they can be themselves in front of other people. People that care about their futures, not to mention their eternal souls. For me, that place is not necessarily in one stationary spot, it's wherever the people in it are at.

My church youth group has become an extended family to me. Every single person in it holds a special place in my heart, and every one of them is not like the other. There's my closer circle of friends, my girls, the ones that are in my grade, and go to my school and never fail to be an ever-present aspect of my life. These girls are my rock, they're my best friends. When I look back on my high school years, all of the good times spent with them with most definitely come to my mind first and foremost.

Then there's the odd ducks, the loners, the skaters, the goths and the nerds. Yet at church, none of that matters. We still say hello to each other, we treat each other with the respect that they deserve and the respect that Jesus asks that we give. I don't know what it is about being there, but I never feel out of place, or that I have to be someone that I'm not to gain the approval of the people around me. I hope that everyone else feels the way I do, because sometimes we all need a home away from home.

I'm so blessed to have such a great group of people that want nothing but the best for me. I have an ever-present force behind me, which makes it so easy to understand how fantastic God's love is for us. He gave us the ability to love and support each other so that His love can be felt as that impenetrable force.

These people have heard my testimony, they've heard about how far I've come and most have been around long enough to see me through it. Without them, I honestly don't know where I'd be. They know my struggles and pray for me. In return I try to know everyone by name, each and every single person that comes through our doors on Tuesday evenings should leave feeling that they were welcome. In time I learn about their struggles, and so the cycle continues.

Never once have I said, "Wow, I really wish I hadn't gone to youth group today." I don't regret missing out on things I could have been doing instead of being at church. I don't regret going to church instead of being lazy and staying home on the couch, in fact, it's the complete opposite. If I don't go I feel like I missed something funny that Gage did, or an important message that Tom shared, or my friends' little brothers trying to be cool and failing miserably once again.

I have so much thanks for all of these amazing people that have changed my life. Oakland Youth Group, I owe you one.
 
Act 12:5
"So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him."

Acts 16:5
"So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers."

1 John 4:19
"We love because he first loved us."

Let them eat cake

Recently it's been made apparent to me that I'm overweight and that I'm not allowed to eat dessert anymore. In fact, everyone in my age group is just a fat lazy sack and it's absolutely necessary that we are denied little pieces of cake and tiny cups of cookie dough or pudding.

I know that obesity runs rampant in our country, and we are the worst offenders of over-eating. I blame Texas. But school desserts are cherished, at least at my school, and it has caused an upset in our cafeteria that they have been removed.

What I would like to know is how taking away the only good part of our school lunch by eliminating sugary desserts from the menu is going to do much good. They other day I had a hot dog, pretzels, apple juice and a granola bar for lunch. All of these things are still available for me to buy at school. Definitely a high carb, high sodium lunch, yet still lacking a tiny cup of jello, therefore it's better for me? I don't buy it.

Teenagers can still find ways to be pigs. We'll go down the street and scarf frostys from Wendy's. We'll bring food from home. Heck, we've got two other meals of the day that they can't even touch. You better believe I'm going to be eating cake for breakfast and dinner at my house.

Fat kids will still be fat, skinny kids will still be skinny. Has it been made clear that bringing back the desserts would make both of these kids happier?

Algebra>absolutely nothing

Can anyone tell me why I'll need to know the quadratic equation later in life? Anyone? Because I can't really see its usefulness in real life situations. Like ever. For any reason at all.

Oh no, that man is choking, someone give him the quadratic equation.

You're really trying to rob me? Don't mess with me pal, I know how to use the quadratic equation.

Should I put "can use quadratic formula" on my resume for Arby's?  

Hey pretty lady, I passed algebra one and lets just say I have extensive knowledge of the quadratic equation, want to date?

The truth of the matter is that the only reason I'm forcing myself to sit through just under an hour of torture everyday my senior year is so that I can rightfully say I took 4 years of math in high school on my college applications. I have absolutely zero desire to actually be taking pre-calculus. It's disgusting. Calculus is just algebra's cynical cousin.

There was an article in the New York Times debating if algebra should be a required class to take in most high schools, due to the fact that it is rarely used outside of the classroom once students leave college and enter the real world. It doesn't teach life skills, it doesn't enhance your ability to get a job, it has even been proven as one of the main reasons students drop out of high school.

The link to the full article is below.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/is-algebra-necessary.html?_r=1

Can I get an Amen? I've lost so many brain cells sitting in math classrooms listening to teachers drone on and on in a language I do not speak. I would rather be doing something much more productive with my precious time, thank you.

So before you try to convince me about how this class isn't pointless, and that I'll use algebra in my everyday life. You are sadly mistaken, and unfortunately I have already resumed tuning you out. 

"Don't have sex. You will get pregnant. And die."

So you're 14 and you've already had sex with three different people? Your mother must be so proud. Oh, sex is no big deal? Please tell me more about how you are immune to STD's and pregnancy. You thought he was the one? Yeah, well, he wasn't.

Why is this even a topic for a blog? Why is there a show called teen-mom? It blows my mind.

Want to hear some statistics? I'm sure you do.

• Although only 13% of teens have had sex by age 15, most initiate sex in their later teen years. By their 19th birthday, seven in 10 female and male teens have had intercourse.
• Seven percent of young women aged 18–24 who had had sex before age 20 report that their first sexual experience was nonvoluntary.
• A sexually active teen who does not use a contraceptive has a 90% chance of becoming pregnant within a year.
• Young people aged 13–24 made up about 17% of all people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in the United States in 2008.
• Although 15–24-year-olds represent only one-quarter of the sexually active population, they account for nearly half (9.1 million) of the 18.9 million new cases of STIs each year.
• Each year, almost 750,000 U.S. women aged 15–19 become pregnant.  
• The U.S. teen pregnancy rate continues to be one of the highest in the developed world. It is more than twice as high as rates in Canada.
• Fifty-nine percent of pregnancies among 15–19-year-olds in 2008 ended in birth, and 26% in abortion.  

(Information taken from http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/FB-ATSRH.html )

So here we've got unplanned pregnancy, STD's, rape, and abortion, all up front and on the table. There's no denying the stats. This is what's happening in our country right now. It's not a joke, lives have been altered and futures have been crushed. All because these kids just couldn't say no?

 Yes, kids. You live with your parents. You don't pay bills. You are a freshman in high-school. You are a kid. You want to have sex? No. Go play with your dolls.

No one is perfect, not a single person can honestly say they've never made a mistake. Having sex before you are in a committed marriage relationship is not a harmless mistake. A mistake is when you leave your lights on in your car and the battery is dead the next morning when you need to go to work. A baby is not a mistake.

Say it with me, "No."
See how easy that was?
Want to have sex?
"No."
Ha! Brilliant.

 1 Corinthians 6:18-20
"Run away from sexual sin. Every other sin done is outside their bodies, but those who sin sexually, sin against their own bodies. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?  You are not your own; you were bought at a price.  Therefore honor God with your body."