College Admissions are Stupid and Nobody Likes Them and I Think I'll Go Join The Circus Now

I do recall Mr. Mullins saying that our blogs don't always have to be relevant to what we're working on and reading in English class, and that if something is really burning on our minds and irking us that we should try writing about it. So here it goes, because lots of things are irking me right now.

Firstly, I hate college essays. Nothing achieves the art of irking me more than college essays. You know what I think colleges should ask? Something along the lines of this: "What do you want to do in life? How will it help you or the people around you? Why should you even get accepted into college?". Instead they're throwing out crap like "What sparks your imagination?".  You know what, college admission guys? When you throw out essay questions like that, you've been living under a rock for the past infinity years if you actually think that you're going to get an honest answer from the bottom of that kid's heart. You know what sparks my imagination? Narnia. But that's not what you wanna hear. You'd rather have me sit there and lie about how some random topic I have been forced to study in some meaningless high school class has changed my life and got me so interested and involved in something or other and inspired my entire career plan. Don't sit there and think that us kids are actually being sincere in half of the things that we write for these stupid prompts, because we aren't. We're just spitting out what we know you want to hear. And you know what? I used a thesaurus for basically every big word in my essay and it has been peer edited just about 10,000 times, so don't think that you're really getting a sample of my actual writing skills.

Secondly, College Admission and Scholarship Guys, don't sit there and make me fill out my race and gender and socioeconomic information just so you can use it against me. I don't wanna sit there and write down stuff and fill in bubbles concerning my demographic that I know are just going to make it harder for me to be admitted. I'm not going to get too much into politics here, but I think it would be nice if we all had an equal chance for admission and everything could be based off of hard work and talent. The real way to promote equality is to become blind to race and gender, not to sit there and continue to use it against people. What was once called "reverse discrimination" is still discrimination. Notice how it still has the word "discrimination" in it. Sorry I was born a Caucasian girl and make up the majority of the people who are applying to college right now. Can't really help that.

Thirdly, College Admission Guys That I Hate, why would you look at our ACT scores and unweighted let me repeat, unweighted, GPA over everything else? I guess I would have benefitted from taking straight general classes and actually getting sleep at night or maybe even having a social life all of these years! After all, the goal for high school (for most students) is just getting into college anyways. Oh, but it's the ACT score that irks me most. Readers, in case you didn't know, colleges like UK look at your ACT score above everything else. Especially for scholarships. Well here's the deal: Let's say there's a kid with a 34 or 35 or something on his ACT, but its grades are comprised of almost straight C's. Yeah, this kid has proved itself to be smart, but if it gets poor grades along with that, what conclusions can we draw? It doesn't work hard. But no, you're gonna let it in over a straight-A kid with a solid 27ish type score who has obviously been working and dedicating itself much, much harder. What good is a genius if they choose not to apply themselves?

So basically I hate college and I think we should all just rebel against society's standards and not go. You know...there are actually some hoboes that lead pretty interesting lives.

Okay I'm done now.

I Start Writing My Blogs At 11:20 Because That's Called Living on the Edge

    I never wrote a blog reflecting on my first independent reading choice, so here it goes: Blood Meridian was the weirdest most disgusting book that I have ever read in my life. It's one of those things that gets so blatantly gory that you want to look away, but you don't because you're sitting there thinking "Did that really just happen? How is this author not in a mental institution?". But he's not in a mental institution, so high five on that one, Cormac McCarthy! Luckily, it wasn't the most difficult thing to write an essay about. However, here's the thing that I don't get: When you're looking at various banned book lists, controversy is determined by the use of offensive language, sexual content, the actions of the characters (I'm talking about poetically described mass murders), etc. Well, I will have you know that this book features racism, the "N" word at least 5 times, the sodomizing of dead bodies, and the cutting off of genetalia, scalps, limbs, ears, and anything else gross that you could think of. Now, by no means am I sitting here saying "Ban the book!", so much as I'm kind of just like "...really?". I understand that the gore and violence portrayed by McCarthy goes to serve a large thematic purpose in the novel, but it's just not the kind of thing that I want to read. People all over the nation keep saying things like "Ban Huckleberry Finn, you guys! It makes my kid feel offended", while I'm over here reading about how "two scarlet ropes extended from his headless neck, spewing into the fire", and that's the least of it, because things get pretty rapey in that novel. I understand that we're AP students and we're turning 18 and really there isn't a required filter for school books anymore, but I miss the times where I could read a book for school and be assured that everything in it would be compatible with my 12-year old personality's interest...and that means no potty words, rape, epic torture, over-described murders, etc. Instead I'm just kind of sitting there in class wondering if it's okay to discuss the happenings of my book because I'm so freaked out by them myself.

Excessisstentionalism

     Is it only me, or does anybody else hate pondering the meaning of life? I just don't get it. Obviously none of us will ever find the answer. No one ever has. I can't even begin to describe how lacking in passion I am towards that particular subject. The last couple of class periods have literally consisted of me sitting there taking shots of Mio Energy to try to stay awake and follow along with what on earth is happening with our extensive Existentialism discussion because quite frankly, I hate engaging in discussions like that and I don't care. The few parts that I have heard (and forgive me, if I have misunderstood them, because I have already stated that I was not all too engaged in class at all) just frustrated me to a point of where I didn't really even want to listen. Firstly, it seems like they're simplifying the concept of love way too much to a point of where it's just wrong. It's not like people choose to love; you don't just love someone because they make you feel all good inside or because they're nice to you or you enjoy looking at them or something. If that was the case, I think the world would have a lot less heart break, because from what I understand, people don't always choose to love good people that will love them back. Love isn't a selfish act because we do not choose it; it's far, far, far out of our control. I don't even think it's something that you can try to simplify or give a reason to. When's the last time you actually CHOSE to love someone? Secondly, Existentialism doesn't seem to take character into account. It defines a person externally, but internally, it's like nothing counts. Here's how I see it: There are about a million people who are accomplished bankers. They can all be defined by this external career accomplishment. But are they all the same? No. When you add in character, everybody is their own individual, and only then is the person described in all dimensions. Well, that's how I see it at least. And again, please forgive me if I have picked up the wrong idea or demonstrated any misunderstandings, because I'm being dead honest when I say that I don't quite get it at all.