Taking a Stand Against Jerkish Parkers

Let's take a walk through the Framingham State University campus.  You're a student, it's cold and raining.  After sitting through back to back two-hour lectures, you cannot wait to get in your warm, dry car and drive home.  You're imagining yourself in your favorite sweatpants, with a cup of piping hot chocolate and settling down to get your dreaded homework done.  As the mental image brings a shimmer of light on a long, cold, rainy day, you turn the corner into Maynard Lot and see that some entitled-feeling person has blocked you in by making their own parking space.

It's no secret that parking on campus is a constant struggle for commuter students.  Especially in bad weather, as students don't want to park in Maple Lot.  However, there are a select few commuters on campus that feel they are above the "law" of parking, and make their own spaces.  Some people seem to believe they're exempt from needing to park in regular spaces simply because it is an inconvenience to find one that's vacant.  This is moderately irritating, as I have personally driven around campus for thirty minutes looking for a parking space, not occurring me to make my own space - either on the grass or on the end of other rows - as that's a pretty jerkish move.  It takes a special kind of individual to not only make their own space, but to park is a way which blocks other students in, and we have too many of those special individuals on our college campus.  

Chances are that they know the dirty looks their car gets as onlookers walk by, on the way to their own appropriately parked cars.  I hope they are aware of the profanity filled comments people make when they are being blocked in by these horribly parked cars.  However, we can whine and become frustrated with the inconsiderate nature of other students, but that isn't going to change their behavior.  For the most part, as we, the law abiding parkers, become frustrated with the jerkish parkers, we are silent about it, or grumble only to ourselves.  They know this, so our frustration isn't enough to motivate them to park respectfully.  So with this, I present a challenge.  Be LOUD!  Let these students know that the ramifications for their actions are going to be far greater than finding a florescent orange violation sticker on their car.  

Talk about it.  Say out loud how frustrating and disrespectful it is.  Call the campus police.  They probably aren't doing much else, and would love to come down to Maynard to ticket and tow the offensively parked vehicle.  I feel confident that towing vehicles gives them great satisfaction.  The more we talk about it, the more we have these cars towed, the less they will be blocking our own cars in, keeping us from our cozy PJ's and hot chocolate on that cold, rainy day.

Tech Savvy or Socially Inept?

Right before the holidays, I noticed a status update of a family member’s on Facebook that said: “Fellow Parents! For my kids: Nintendo DS or iPod Touch?” These kids are 5 and 7. As if that wasn’t bad enough, a comment from one of her friends said: “The iPod is so much easier that even the one to two year olds can figure out how to use some pretty cool learning apps. Obviously there are different apps for older kids. I feel like from what I have seen of the ds it doesn’t have a lot of learning apps. Plus you can get onto the internet with the iPod too.” Does anyone else see the problem here? We are the age of the quick and simple result – check Google for an answer on your iPhone and you’re good to go. Our society’s intense dependence on these gadgets is extremely worrying, especially for the future generations who are growing up with technologically dependent parents and learning to be dependent themselves.

I see more and more people at the caf with their heads down scrolling through Facebook on their smart phones than actually engaging in a conversation with the people they’re sitting with. If it’s this bad already, and our generation has only been exposed to these things from the time we were teenagers, how bad will it get for the generations to come who will know it from birth? Kids like the ones in my family, and apparently even one to two year olds, are learning to depend on and use technology. What happened to reading a book, or playing outside with the neighborhood kids? A true fear of mine is that within the next twenty to forty years, the social skills we need in our society will be few and far between; it will be increasingly difficult to get people’s attention or to talk to someone without the safety net of their cell phone.

Now we can’t just expect to wean ourselves off of these things and have all of the problems disappear. Because honestly I, and everyone (literally everyone) I know, use a cell phone and laptop every single day – it’s just the way the world works nowadays. Not to mention, technological advances have improved the efficiency of the world in many ways. But there comes a point when you have to realize that too much exposure to this kind of stuff is not good, especially for kids. I think if we scale it down a little bit, especially when we are with friends or family, and put the cell phones and the social networks in our pockets and in the back of our minds, then maybe we can save the younger generations from a bunch of awkward encounters in person, without an iPhone to hide behind.

The Weight of the U.S.

The United States is growing not only in the amount of people but also the weight of these people.

Obesity is a major problem in this society and we have the most amounts of obese people in the world. Over one third of adults in America are obese and around 20% of adolescence is obese.

People obviously care about their appearance but do not care enough to make themselves healthy and do what they can to look good even if it is hurting their body. Sometimes this is the opposite of being overweight or obese. There has been such a big increase in bulimia and anorexia lately and I am always hearing stories of people who are hurting themselves just to look good.

Some health risks that everyone should worry about are diabetes, high blood sugar, strokes, and high cholesterol. These can be life threatening and could be affect someone’s life drastically, along with their families. Starting with bad eating habits as a child can even create things like asthma and that will limit what they can do when they are older.

With the economy going down, citizens are not being able to afford too many healthy foods. The cheaper foods are easier to make in bulk, but have a higher fat and/or sugar content. All these foods are also making people lazy because of the way they make them feel. Carbohydrates are a big part to this. They will upset your blood sugar level if you have too many and result in feeling this way.

I believe that in order to help this country the cost of healthy foods should go down and become more common in people’s diets. Healthy foods are all over and you just have to be willing to pay the price because, even though, it should go down does not mean that it will with this economy. If some are not willing to pay the price other things have to be done to become healthy like exercise. People should pay more attention to health and what bad things could come out of having a bad medical record because of food. These are all important to one’s health and will be beneficial for people to take care of themselves. As long as people make an effort to watch what they eat their health is better off. Sometimes it can be annoying and I know myself I do not always have the motivation to go to the gym but this is what can potentially save you and be an alternative to eating more.

If it is not obesity that is the problem it is just the opposite! Using diet pills and other substances that guarantee potential weight loss to consumers lead to popular eating disorders and should be stopped as soon as possible. You need to take care of your body and this is not a healthy way to do so.

All these issues are something that can be prevented and Americas just have to work at it.

Seeing the darkness of death in a whole new light

While sitting and chatting with some close friends recently, the topic of death came into conversation. I’m not entirely sure how it happened but it did; it appeared before us loud and proud. One of my friends began talking about the traditions in her family after someone dies: the two day wake, the funeral mass and subsequent burial at the grave site. The conversation continued, and I could not help but chime in and voice my experience with the deceased.

The way people pay their respects and bury the dead can differ according to religion, culture, even family to family. I am in no way “dissing” a certain way of grieving because really, the grieving process is something extremely personal, as I'm about to share with you now. I recently, though, saw saying goodbye to the deceased in a different light.

My 55-year-old uncle, *Joseph, passed away this December from a very brief battle with lung cancer. It was tragic for the entire family, as my dad and his three other brothers lost their brother at such a young age. His body was cremated, and the family had his remains for a couple weeks but was a bit unsure of what exactly to do with them. My uncle was never very religious so having a wake and funeral for him, in our eyes, would not have satisfied his spirit. The family has a plot where my dad’s parents are buried so we felt that putting some of my uncle’s remains with his parents would be exactly where he would want to be.

The actual service was a very intimate one; everyone huddling around the gravesite in a circle: children, brothers, nieces, nephews, cousins all in attendance. My other uncle (Joseph's brother) led off the service, saying a few words: about how uncertain we all are of death because it is so unknown to us, how scary beautiful it can be.

Then, all of my deceased uncle’s brothers, including my dad, clipped a small piece of their hair, putting it into the ground with some of my uncle’s ashes. Genetically proven, there is no one closer to you than your siblings. This is a ritual that Native Americans would perform. The reference to burial rituals by Native Americans gave the ceremony a very gritty, raw, real feel. Then, each and every person in attendance got to put some of my uncle’s ashes into the ground. Everyone also had a beach stone or shell (my uncle lived by the beach his whole life). We kissed them and placed them into the ground.

We were all part of the burial. Personally, I had a hand in completing the ceremony. Before this, I had always seen someone who is deceased as this separate entity that you could not touch: the body in the casket, the remains in an urn, up and away from any human contact except by the hired hand laying the remains in the ground. But not this time. Putting some of my uncle’s ashes into the ground really got me thinking; it was such a therapeutic process, something that I had never experience before. This time, I felt I was one with my uncle Joseph.

This burial process was so foreign to me but gave me a new appreciation for the beauty that death can bring. I no longer saw a deceased loved one as this separate, untouchable being, but instead as one with the Earth and mankind. In my opinion, having everyone involved in the burial was the absolute best way to heal. It allowed me to see that death can be a beautiful process; it allowed closure, and it allowed me to shine light on what was formerly such a dark topic.

*Name change