Holiday Respect

            All stores should be closed on Thanksgiving Day. Isn’t Thanksgiving supposed to be about family time? If you work on Thanksgiving, you’re going to be away from your family, slaving away when you’re supposed to be sitting at the table, eating turkey, and enjoying yourself. Everyone can easily make a list of the things they need from the store and get it the day before. If you forget something for your Thanksgiving dinner, oh well, maybe next time. I feel that family time is a bit more important than making sure you have extra butter for your mashed potatoes.

            Also, not only should stores be closed on Thanksgiving, but I believe that there should be no such thing as “Black Friday.” Who wants to stay up all day and then go into work that night with a bunch of crazy 12am shoppers? If you have to go into work at midnight, then you either sleep all day, making no time for family on Thanksgiving Day, or you worry about how miserably tired you’re going to be at work when you’re supposed to be enjoying yourself. People may think it’s fun to go shopping with Grandma and Aunt and Mom after you all have a nice meal, but many people wouldn’t be very happy if they were the ones working and not shopping with their families. I find it selfish that people are ruining others family time just to buy things for themselves.

            On Thanksgiving you’re supposed to be thankful for what you have, not worry about what you’re about to have that night or the next day. Everyone says they’re thankful for the food on their table and the wonderful family members they have, and then they take the money those family members might have given them to go blow it on unnecessary items; it’s kind of contradictory if you ask me. Everyone should be able to enjoy their holiday and not be worrying about what kind of rude customers they might have to deal with that night or what the biggest sales may be at their favorite store. All stores should be closed on Thanksgiving and the day after.

Minimum Wage Increase- Argumentative Topic 

            Minimum wage has gone up quite a substantial amount just in the past few months. So many people were always complaining about only getting seven dollars and some odd cents an hour working at fast food companies or grocery stores. Many people have always dreamed of minimum wage increasing so they would get more money for their simple jobs. A few people I have heard from have said, “why is it fair that we get don’t get paid as much as someone who doesn't even work nearly as hard as we do” or, “we go to work every day too we should get paid at least a little bit more”. What they either didn't know or just didn't think about was that when minimum wage goes up, so does the cost of everything around you.

            Minimum wage increasing has made the cost of many things rise. Many people are so ecstatic about getting paid more at their jobs, but many people are also upset that things they usually pay $1.00 for are now $1.75, or so on. For example, driving down the road I saw a sign for a Dunkin Donuts restaurant stating that they were hiring starting at $10.00/hour for all positions; this also means that the price of coffee and other items there are going to skyrocket. Many people have different views on this because there are both positives and negatives to the situation. Just because people are now getting paid more money walking into a job, doesn't mean that they’ll have more money in their pocket at the end of the day. 

What This World is Coming to: Compare/Contrast Essay

What This World is Coming to

Technology, hairstyles, and clothing- so many things are so different now than they were in the 1980s. In my compare and contrast essay, I’ll be talking about the changes from 1980 until now, in 2014. There are so many things that could be listed, but technology is probably one of the biggest changes.

For a while in the 80s, people didn’t even own a cell phone, let alone a fancy iPhone. Nowadays, I sit and watch my five year old cousin play all of these different games on his iPad. What would people think today if they had to use a type writer or if I had to hand this post in written by hand? Back then there was no texting someone to talk to them. People actually had to pick up the telephone and type in the phone number to get a hold of someone. No one could carry their lap top to class or e-mail their typed paper to their teacher. In the 1980s, kids went outside to play and have a good time. Today, I hear, “Mom, can I play Minecraft on my iPad?” Things have changed in such a huge variety of ways.

TED Talk: How I Beat Stage Fright

Ted Talk: How I Beat Stage Fright

            I watched “How I Beat Stage Fright” by Joe Kowan. In his Ted Talk, “How I Beat Stage Fright,” Kowan talks about how he had such an irrational, overwhelming fear of playing his music or talking in front of a large, or even sometimes small number of people. Kowan decided to go to an open mic on his 30^th birthday to try to help himself finally overcome this terrible fear he had. When he got there, he signed up to play and the fear and anxiety in him to started to take over about ten minutes before his turn. When his turn came around, he pushed himself to walk onto the stage because he knew he had to do this if he wanted to make any progress. He had a small glimpse of that audience connection that he was looking for. He went back week after week to get himself to try and completely overcome the fear he had. He wrote a song about his fear to perform on stage, because in his mind he thought maybe that would make him feel more comfortable if the audience knew how he was feeling. This helped him progress significantly over time and resulted in him eventually being able to become successful in what he aspired to do.

I enjoyed watching Kowan’s talk because he not only wanted to overcome his fear, but he took an extra step in showing the audience that it’s okay to have a fear of something in the first place. I can really relate with him and his fear of performing or speaking in front of other people. He was very descriptive about his feelings, making me feel like I was actually in his shoes while he was standing up there talking. Kowan’s way of trying to relate to the audience really made his talk more interesting. For example, when he says, “Really, 200 thousand years of human evolution and it still can’t tell the difference between a saber tooth tiger and 20 folk singers on a Tuesday night open mic?” I felt as if this was a good example that many people could relate to, not with just a fear of stage fright, but with any fear they may have and that’s what I really liked about Kowan’s talk.