Teens on Halloween

I've fallen victim of the glares of old people as I knock on their door trick-or-treating as a teen.

The question is always asked around this time, how old is too old to go trick or treating? Personally, I think 18 should be the max. I mean, besides as an adult to help a little kid. Most people think around middle-school age you should quit. I believe I'm still a kid till I'm 18 and I love trick or treating. It's not as fun as it used to be, I'll admit that. Now it's just kind of awkward. But I only think it's awkward because the adults make it awkward by asking how old we are or looking at us weird! If it was just normal and socially acceptable for anyone under 18 to go trick or treating, we wouldn't have this problem. Okay, I could go with some sixth graders and totally get away with people thinking I'm their age...but I don't really know any little kids to disguise myself with. I'm pretty sure all my friends are quitting trick or treating this year... so now what do we do?

I used to always have a Halloween party. We would have a bonfire and play games in the dark, and when it was time, we'd go to some houses trick or treating. That was always fun and I kind of wish I had done that this year. Unfortunately, Halloween falls on a Wednesday. No parties or staying out late it looks like.

Haunted houses are a popular thing in October. My super lame town has one I think. I've gone to it every year for the past 2 or 3 years and now it's just stupid and not that scary or good. There's one other one a little ways away but it's more like a little kid place on a farm and it's not worth $20 if all you want to do is the haunted house and not the pumpkin painting or mini corn maze. The other night my boyfriend and I searched all over for haunted houses, including ones we were pretty sure were closed. All we could find was the same one we've always gone to, so we just didn't go. Instead, we made our own spooky adventure. We walked around the creepishly empty and abandoned downtown. It was so quiet. A guy wearing a mask even passed us on a bike-one of the only people we saw. We, well he, kind of had an urge to make it more scary by walking through alleys instead of streets, but I on the other hand had no desire to get attacked by a homeless man hiding behind a dumpster. It was starting to get darker and we heard screaming as we passed a park. It was just kids playing hide and seek or something, but still. It was fun and not really that dangerous because there were (a few) people around. And it is Cedar Rapids, Iowa, not Detroit. We also looked for abandoned houses to go rummage through in the dark. One he knew about was far away, so we didn't go. I had seen some eerie looking buildings by an old unused train track alongside the bike trail. Sadly, they were in the middle of a little town. They would have been perfect though.

I hate hate hate scary movies. Maybe I can't really say that considering I've never seen one...but I'm sure I would. I watched part of One Missed Call at a friend's house in 8th grade, but spent the majority of the time hiding behind a couch. Even the pictures on the movie covers freak me out. I was in a mood where I wanted to try and watch one, but we ended up watching a more action-y type movie where all these guys got eaten by wolves. If you're not such a wimp like me, I say watch scary movies and freak out your friends during it or something.

Halloween makes me feel risky and brave and a little rebellious. The night before Halloween you could "mummify" someone's yard or car with some toilet paper. You could hang a creepy decoration outside your friends window or front door to scare them when they head to school on Halloween morning. You could even just stand outside their house and make creepy noises and scratch on their window with a branch. Just be ready to run when they look outside! You could even play an intense game of hide and seek like those kids I saw in the park.

If you feel like you can't trick or treat on Halloween, maybe you can just come up with different creative ways to make the night scary and unforgettable.

College=Freedom.. Or Does it?

I don’t think there should be rules in college like there are in high school.

I was at a Christian college this weekend, Mid America Nazarene University. As much as I love that their focus is church and God and that they have classes built around Christian principles, I don’t love how strict Christian colleges can be.

I used to always think I would go to a Christian college… until I actually visited one. The first one I visited was Olivet when I was in 8^th grade I believe. I learned that there was a dress code and you couldn’t wear shorts so automatically I decided I would never ever go there. That wasn’t all though. They had strict curfews, you had to check out of your dorm of you went anywhere overnight for the weekend because the RA’s would freak out of you were missing, and it was overall just very… controlling.

The controlling-ness of most Christian colleges is what turns me off from going there. I think college is about becoming independent. You shouldn’t need set rules, you should know your morals by now and college should be for learning to live by them. College is about deciding what YOU want to do and learning to live with the consequences if you screw up. You should know when you need to be in your dorm and go to bed; they shouldn’t have to force it upon you. You should know what is acceptable to wear by now; hopefully they don’t have to tell you. You should know how to be responsible and not have guys in your dorm 24/7, they shouldn’t have to constantly check and make sure there’s not a forbidden gender in the wrong dorm. You should know how to make your own responsible decisions by now, without being constantly monitored. If colleges don’t allow you to do that, you’re going to be naïve when you get outta there into the “real world.” Attending public colleges will give you more pressures, but that’s the only way you’ll learn to push past them and not give in. If they aren’t even there, you won’t understand some things that others do because you never experienced those pressures being given to you, so you may be confused about some things in the real world. You never had to make those decisions as a young adult in college so when you have to later, you won’t have experience knowing how to make the right choice because you never had the freedom to decide for yourself until then. It isn’t high school anymore and the college administration is not our parents. They shouldn’t even have the same kind of disciplining authority that high school teachers do with their students. College should be different, where people have to discipline themselves and the ones that learned what’s right and wrong will just know already not to make bad choices, and the ones who didn’t, should have matured more in high school because they really shouldn't need more lessons on right and wrong once they’re over 18.

I really do like Christian colleges and the lessons they teach, and I think they are good for new Christians still trying to figure out what’s right and wrong and feel like they need help staying in line in college. But I just don’t think college should be a correctional facility. The real world doesn’t have rules like that, and college is the best way to have that transition into the real world without these guidelines constantly being thrown at you.  People need to learn to make their own decisions based off of their morals, and if they can’t do what’s right, they probably don’t belong in college anyway and probably aren’t mature enough to be there. It’s a time to get serious because the rest of your life depends on it, and students shouldn’t have to rely on colleges to keep them in line, they should want to keep themselves in line and act on it by then. College is about being out on your own and learning how to handle it, without someone telling you. 

Babies are People too.

Abortion is wrong. 

I don't care what other people say, it is wrong and I know that for sure. I don't even think this is an "opinion" because I can't even fathom that other people believed it's not wrong to kill someone. 

Abortion is one of the most debated about topics today, especially with the election. I do believe there are very few exceptions in which abortion should be allowed, but those should not be stretched at all.

I believe it should only be legal for rape, or if it is going to kill the mother, or if the baby is going to die during birth and they know that for sure. Otherwise, it is not okay. Even with incest, I still am not 100% sure that's an okay reason to have an abortion because I don't really know the effects of incest. 

Just because a baby isn't born yet, does not mean they don't have life. After just 5 weeks babies begin to have heartbeats. That is one of the first things that happens and a heartbeat means life. Most women who get abortions get them within the first 8 weeks, but even if it's after week 4 or 5, they are killing something with a heartbeat. What really bothers me, are these people who say, "it's not okay to kill trees!" or all of these animal rights activists, saying we shouldn't eat or kill animals, and yet, THEY are often the ones who think abortion should be legal because it's a "right." Well, those people are speaking up for the rights of things that can't speak up for themselves, such as trees or animals, which are also living things. But, they will not speak up for the rights of unborn babies who can't speak for themselves much like trees or animals. With that, they are hypocritical and it is an abomination to me. Human life is more important than lives of plants or animals and that is how God created the Earth. 

Most abortions after 12 weeks are from teenagers. Babies at 12 weeks have the general shape of a human being. They have limbs, and little fingers and toes. They have lips. They are starting to be able to move their fingers and toes some. They have intestines and are completely a living being inside of a mother. Unfortunately, many girls and women decide to end the life of their child now, making them selfish murderers if it's only because of their mistakes. The reason many teenage girls don't decide to have an abortion until then is just because they are indecisive and don't know what to do, or don't even realize they are pregnant. Well, the only way to be 100% sure you aren't pregnant is to not have sex. But, these girls are too impatient to wait. They choose to be selfish and do it anyway, not caring about the consequences. Abortion should not be used as a form of birth control which it often is for teenagers. They get the idea that if they get pregnant, oh well, they can just get an abortion and no one has to know. They murder their baby because of their own stupid mistake, but shouldn't the baby have rights? We need to speak up for this unborn child and condemn the mother for being a murderer if that's what she chooses to do. She better feel guilty later. Hopefully she will realize her selfishness, thinking that her and her life and what people thought of her was more important than someone else even getting a chance at life. 

Women who get abortions should not be allowed to be mothers again. They killed someone, after all, and murders shouldn't raise children. Of course, like I said before, there should be exceptions of rape or extreme serious health concerns, but other than that, if abortions have to stay legal, they should at least not allow them to be mothers. I'm a girl and I'm saying this. Women complain about how non-abortion violates "women's rights." Well I don't think it does. There's often the phrase, "women should get to choose what happens to their bodies." Uh, okay, then what about the babies? Shouldn't they get to choose what happens to theirs? Women and pro-abortion people say no. Why? Because the mothers "matter more" for some reason. And having a heavy lump on their stomach is more of a big deal to them than killing someone apparently. That just shows that they do not have the kindness, selflessness, or right to be a mother later. If they didn't want it to happen, they shouldn't have made it a chance. 

Abortion should be illegal. It's not an opinion. It's the truth. Murder is illegal. 

Here's Some Poetic Writing For Ya..

Guess what I'm writing about. I'm just going to describe something, I'm not going to say what it is. It could mean something different for anyone reading it.

It's better than the smell of pancakes on a Sunday morning. It's more magical than a trip to Disney World. You feel like your head is spinning but it's great; if you think the Silly Silo is fun, this is a million times better. It's a good spin. Not a pukey one. It can make you believe anything is possible and everything really does make sense after all. But... it really doesn't make sense. How could anything this wonderful be real? It's confusing and tiring and horrible to think about, yet, it's the best thing in the world. You never want it to end. You want it to last forever, and feel it every second of every day and some days, you do. You feel warm and full but not overwhelmed in a bad way, just overwhelmed with this joyous feeling in your heart. Your mind ceases to ache from the stresses of every day because nothing else matters. This is better than any drug you could take. It makes you feel good inside and out and makes others envy you because they don't know what it feels like. Or at least, you can't imagine anyone else could ever possibly feel this great. You're special and you're the only one who feels like this and you feel the best. It's the little things that make it so great; a flower on a random day, or a scribble on a note stuck somewhere for you to see. You wouldn't trade it for anything on the planet. It makes you want to sing and dance around. Sure, it can be hard, but it's all worth it. It's 100% worth it. All the greatest things in life come with struggles, and bumps in the road happen on a long journey to paradise. And there's great things on the way to this journey to paradise too; beautiful birds, a cool car you pass, some place you love to eat that was right on the way there. And the good always outweighs the bad. If it's right, anyway. You have no regrets and you want to remember everything about it. What you wore, the smells around you, the warmth of a hand in yours. It's simply amazing. It's almost indescribable how awesome it is. Sometimes it's hard to be happy any other time, because you know you can be happier if it was just always like this. But it's not and it can't be. Soon, maybe. You'll just have to wait a few years. Smiles shine and laughter floods the room. Sides hurt from laughing so hard and from being tickled so much. You hate it and you love it. Sometimes it's quiet and there's no need to say anything. The mere silence is enough to fill you and make you content. Everything seems like a glowing crystal ball, a future yet to be discovered but you know what you want to see in it. 

Mini Treasure Hunt

Tonight my boyfriend and I went Geocaching. 

For those of you who don't know what it is, it's like a mini treasure hunt. Anyone can do it. You go to geocaching.com or get the app and you look up caches near your location or wherever you want to go. You find them by coordinates so you need a GPS or if you have the app it just tells you which direction to go and how far. Caches are usually little plastic boxes or tubes of some sort. The two we found tonight were a greenish-camouflage color. Sometimes they say "Official Geocache Container" or something, or sometimes they're just waterproof boxes like a film canister. Inside them is a roll of paper or tiny notebook. When you find it, you're supposed to write the date and your name, initials, or if you come up with some fancy Geocaching nickname. In some of them there's also a small object. You're supposed to take it and leave another new object. Nothing too fancy. It's just a little treasure for the next person to find. 

I had never really gone before tonight. In the past I had looked up ones near my house, and accidentally stumbled upon one at a park right down the road. We found that one again tonight and wrote our initials and found a collector coin and left a ColdStone gift card with about a dollar left. That was all we could find in the car. We weren't prepared. We saw that there was another one down the road a little ways. It was dark, we went at 8 PM and I live a little ways out. It was on this road that they stopped maintenance to. It was behind a gate and it was gravel and muddy and grass was grown on top. My dad has always told me that a meth lab used to be at the end of that road. It was quite creepy in the dark I must say; no one around, no way for cars to get back there... not to mention the possible meth-addicts in the woods coming to eat our faces off or something. We kept walking, following the path our phones showed. We had headlamps, but they didn't do much so I just got the flashlight on my phone. We heard a loud buzzing noise the farther from the road we got. I was starting to get really freaked out, but we were so close and I wanted to find it. I didn't know this, but after looking around for a couple of minutes Jared told me on the page for the cache it said to go in daylight hours. Well, it was pitch dark. More challenge right? We arrived next to an electric pole, the source of the loud buzzing. There were little paths near it and posts, so I figured it would be right there. We looked over and over near one post in particular,  Jared told me the map said it should be 2 feet away. Suddenly I saw a little path. He was just about to give up when I saw a tiny little canister hanging from a tree branch. I felt pretty awesome. It was dark and spooky and it was a minuscule thing to find and weird that it wasn't on the ground. there was only paper inside, no prize since it was so small I'm assuming, but it was still fun. We signed our names and ran the heck out of there! It was a fun little adventure though.

I think Geocaching is a fun activity for when you're bored, need something to do for a date, or something with your family. It's an Easter Egg hunt for big kids! Sure, it may sound kind of nerdy, but everyone has a nerdy side and this is fun. It can be challenging depending on where you go and how far you're willing to take it. It's good exercise because it can sometimes require a hike and it gets you outdoors. I would recommend it to people of all ages. All you need is a GPS or smartphone! 

VP Debate.

Ryan VS Biden. It was quite entertaining.

I'll start by explaining that yes, I am a republican, I've been raised in a home where that's the only way, and my mom was a huge part of the Bush campaign in Iowa. I realize I have bias, but I can still clearly see the right choice. (Bad pun, I know.)

Sometimes I find debates really boring, but this one was just plain entertaining. In my opinion, Biden acted like a complete fool. He was rude, belligerent, cocky, and immature, despite his age and experience. Ryan was confident, calm, and polite. 

They often showed the split screen while the two were debating, showing the opponents  reactions to one another. Biden constantly made a smirk, laugh, chuckle, making gestures with his arms, and even an eye roll while Ryan was trying to explain his side. Many people, including Democrats, saw this as extremely rude and immature behavior and said so in interviews after the debate. 

Another rude thing that Biden constantly did was interrupt Ryan. Martha Raddatz, the woman who monitored and gave the questions for the debate, would sometimes ask Biden his questions first, and then Ryan would respond. Biden demanded an opportunity to respond to what he said, even though he should have said all he needed to when he got his chance. He interrupted Ryan so many times, constantly complaining that he wasn't getting the same amount of time as Ryan, when in fact, overall he had about a minute more. Biden had 41 minutes and 32 seconds, Ryan had 40 minutes and 12 seconds. I thought the way Raddatz gave the debate was a little unfair. The majority of the time she asked Ryan first, so then Biden just responded to what he said, not answering the original question and saying what HE would do for the country. It also didn't give Ryan a chance to respond to Biden's answer.

Biden could never give a straight answer. When asked what Obama and him would do for the country, or how they would solve a certain subject, he never gave a straight answer on what they would do, and then he went and said Ryan never gave straight answers! Biden just went around the subject. Ryan thoroughly explained his answers to America's problems. Much like Obama's campaign ads, Biden didn't say what THEY would do to help the country, they just said what Republicans will or won't do that will "harm" it. He constantly just blamed all of what Obama has caused on Bush or other Republicans, even as far back as Regan! Why can't they just tell us how they are going to help the country? The answer is clear. They won't. They haven't in the past 4 years, they had their chance, it's time for someone new. 

I Is Who I Is.

"Be yourself" is one of the most overused phrases in American culture.

Yet, it's actually kind of valid.

We as people need to figure out who we are and what we want to become. I think being yourself is not just doing what you want to do when you want to do it. Being yourself is more about showing who you really are inside to others, and most people struggle with that. We are so fake on the outside. We act nice or act mean to impress people. Why don't we ever just act like how we feel on the inside? I probably do that too much lately, but I used to not and that was worse. People expect you to fake it; to fake being okay when you're not because otherwise it's just not socially acceptable. Then, they go and say things like, "You shouldn't hide your emotions, just be yourself, or don't be afraid to speak up." It is so confusing. How are we ever supposed to know what to do? So I say, just be yourself and when you feel like you need to say something, say it, regardless of what others will say, or if you don't think you need to, just don't for a little bit.

I also think being yourself is expressing who you are inside on the outside. Most people have a pretty easy time doing this. Artsy people wear artsy clothes or maybe dye their hair different. Plain people are usually pretty plain, t shirt and jeans type of dressers. Athletes wear sweats a lot. I'm all over the place. I don't really know what specifically I am. I'm not in a group. Some days I'm wearing my plaid and boots, another I'm wearing a classy dress, the next I'm wearing something totally artsy and random. But that still expresses who I am, because I don't really know. I have interests in so many different things and I like so many different styles that I just want to try it all out. I'm not exactly sure what I specifically want to become. So I guess that's who I am...just spontaneous and creative for now.

Being yourself is not an excuse to go completely nuts. Just because you've always struggled with something does not mean it has to be a part of "who you are." You can overcome it. Something that is wrong does not define who you are, or at least it doesn't have to. You can find something you love that's good; that's a way of being yourself. You just need to act like you who you are and more importantly, who you want to be.

I don't get sports.

I have never, and probably will never, understand the point of competitive sports.

Do sports really matter? Not really. I mean, it's entertainment so yes, but it doesn't matter if you win or lose so I do not see the point of getting angry over a loss. It's not going to really affect your life unless you are a professional sports player. It frustrates me that people get so angry over something as silly as what is known as a game. It's for fun, so it shouldn't make you mad! 

High school sports are not to get worked up about. For example, during my sophomore year I played basketball. There was so much drama that was really unneeded. People got mad at each other over this stupid game when we lost. They got mad at us for not crying and being mad at ourselves after the loss. I didn't get why I should be mad at myself. It was just a game, and I didn't even play in it so why do I care? They made such a huge deal out of it. Out of one stupid game. It just makes me wonder how incredibly awesome these people's lives must be if they are getting angry and upset over a stupid sophomore basketball game. If it's that big of a deal than everything else just must be amazing, because a game does not affect me at all. 

I understand people like to win. You worked hard and maybe think you deserve it, and a win is a good reward, but what do you gain from it? Just a good feeling? Why can't you feel good after a loss where you played really hard and did better than you ever had before? Unless you're looking for some huge scholarship or to play a sport after high school why does it matter if you win or lose? Besides, scholarships care more about individual performance than how your team did, so people shouldn't get mad at their team mates for not being as good as them. That happened to me a lot last year which is why I'm not playing basketball again this year. I'm not too great at sports. I've played since kindergarten but only in YMCA leagues or little church leagues, which were never competitive and sometimes didn't even keep score. I was never in any club basketball and some of my teammates somehow expected me to be as good as them and have the same drive to win and not care about who they hurt along the way just like they did. I was slow and the shortest one on the team and I think I got a total of 2 minutes playing time last year because all the team cared about was winning. I just wanted to play for FUN. Because that's that I've always been told sports are about, getting in shape and having fun. Unfortunately, that's not offered in high school. 

People just shouldn't be so hard on themselves over sports and need to remember it's just a game and it's not going to ruin their life if they lose every now and then.