anamericanprogress?

SEE: A long, hilly road that appears to have no end.
THINK: America is traveling along a road much like this one with hills representing obstacles and conflicts that are present. Once one hill is overcome, there is always another one to conquer, like a cycle. “You always have a green light” (92) said Gatsby, indicating that there is always something to strive for, or always a hill to be climbed. Since there is no end to this road, there is always an obstacle present. For example, when America contains the powers of communism and overcomes that hill, now is presented with the issue of terrorist groups in the middle east. As America is striving to defeat this conflict, there will inevitably be another conflict coming our way. Possibly North Korea? As another example, many say that the War in Iraq is a repeat of the Vietnam War. We continue in the same cycle of events. OUR HISTORY IS OUR FUTURE.
WONDER: Is reaching the American dream or the end of the road ever truly possible?


"History is a vast early warning system" said Norman Cousins and I find this to be very true. If you look to your past, you will see your future. History does repeat itself in a cycle, therefore to find answers, we must look to our past and learn from it. THIS is how we progress, by overcoming obstacles with the knowledge from our past.

YAY!!! GO AMERICAN STUDIES FAMILY! love you guys!

what is your future?

I don't know about you guys... but I am getting pretty fed up with school right now.  I have my own case of senioritis.  When I think of the end of the year, I think of slowing things down, wrapping them up, and getting ready for a nice relaxing summer.

Not this year... Tomorrow, I actually have 3 tests:

1.  Math Test

2. Pig Practical

3. Spanish Exam.....

I dont know about you guys, but I don't call that wrapping things up.  On top of this, my best friend is a senior, who is just lounging around when come friday, she will be done with high school.  I mean going to college can be pretty stressful.  Having to teach yourself to live on your own, make some money, get yourself food, do your own laundry, and most importantly, be away from your family.  But seriously, they have no finals and they are done a full two weeks earlier than the rest of the classes.  (Yes, I do consider finals week a week of school because we are doing just as much work, if not more, and we are just as stressed out, if not more).

Ok, enough about me complaining, let's make this a thoughtful blogpost, shall we??

So I was talking to my friends one of which is so excited to go off to college, cannot wait to get out of her house and start her new life on her own, doing what she wants, outside of the "stupid northshore bubble" as she puts it.  She's ready to get out of high school and be done with it.  She says that she doesn't want to come back and wants to live her life her own way, not following in her parents footsteps.  She says that she wants to be adventurous and go where ever the wind blows and do what makes her happy in life.

Then there is my other friend (the one I spoke of earlier) who is incredibly nervous to leave.  She is getting really bad anxiety from the thought of being away from her loved ones.  She's excited to start a new chapter of her life, but she enjoys where she lives and thinks that she sees the good things that the northshore has to offer.  After college, she plans on finding a secure job back here near her family in chicago.  She says that she wants everything to be planned out and that may mean doing some things that she really does not want to do.

So this is my question to you, ladies and gentlemen:

In your opinion, what is more important, having a secure future that may not be exactly what you love, or doing whatever makes you happy, even though it may not be stable??

THE AMERICAN FLAG in AN AMERICAN STUDIES 2!!

Some more pics I took...

THERE'S ONLY ONE implying that America is great and there is only one so GRAND.

Okay, so I know this is a little stalker-ish... but as I was on my walk, I saw this man gardening outside his garage, a few feet away from where this flag is.  I went behind a tree to get this shot (that's the stalker-ish part).  But I couldn't believe that this flag was just thrown in the corner of his garage where he keeps his rake and broom NEAR THE GARBAGE!!  This is what I call flag neglect... I just wanted to go up to the man and ask him why THE american flag was sitting in the corner of his garage.  HOW IGNORANT.

THE AMERICAN FLAG in AN AMERICAN STUDIES

So I took a walk around my neighborhood this morning to see a few different flags that I thought had interesting stories behind them.... I'm going to discuss this one though.

So friday in class, we were talking about class.  Haha, no but seriously, we were talking about how to determine different social classes.... by the kind of car they drive? their property value? their income? the prestige of their job title? Then we got to talking about whether or not we thought people living in small houses would be more likely to hang THE american flag outside their home, or if we thought someone with a big house would.  As I was walking, I saw exactly that....

This was the flag I saw at the house.  It was not just hung by a door, but it was high, on a flagpole as if the flag was above everything, and we look up at it.  The flag was ripped in the upper right corner and is very faded, I wouldn't say that that is neglect or mistreatment of the flag, but I would say that it is showing that the flag has been up for a while and has been through a lot, just as America has.  More important than the placement of the flag, or it's condition, was what house the flag was at....

This is a picture of the house where the flag was a-wavin'.  Smaller house in Glenview, with two cars parked outside.  I wouldn't consider these two cars the nicest cars, but cars nonetheless.   I thought this was interesting because this is showing exactly what we talked about.  I would place the person (s) who live here as middle class based on what they see... what do you think??

And I just want to point out that they were the house that had THE American flag waving... unlike all of the other bigger houses on the street.

JUNIOR THEME: conclusion??? HELPPPPPPP

Alright, so I am basically done writing my paper, and the editing process has begun...

however, I don't have a conclusion.  I have been sitting here staring at my computer for the past 20 minutes trying to figure out what to say in order to wrap up my JT. AHHHH!!! I can't stare at a white screen anymore with a flashing cursor and no words!!!

HELP!!

Any suggestions as to what i should put in my conclusion?????

just to remind you, my thesis is: 

Standards of beauty are set by advertisement agencies, stereotypical gender roles and the cosmetic industry's constant push for one to be "more beautiful", therefore women obsess over their own appearance, sometimes to a harmful extent, in order to meet societal standards. 

JUNIOR THEME: ugh, and another introduction. If the annotated bibliography doesn't kill me, I don't know what will.

After talking to Bolos and Doc OC, I think I might finally have a junior theme worthy introduction. The grabber is the same, just my thesis is different...
for, hopefully, the last time, what do you think about this introduction?

After being told by a theatre company that at 5'5" and 96 lbs she was overweight, Heidi Guenther developed an eating disorder. She died at age 22 as a result of anorexia and bulimia (Boston Globe). Women go to such great extents to achieve “beauty”. Many women, such as Heidi Guenther have lost their lives striving to attain this attractiveness. But, why are Americans so obsessed with the physical appearance of females? Standards of beauty are set by advertisement agencies, stereotypical gender roles and the cosmetic industry's constant push for one to be "more beautiful", therefore women obsess over their own appearance, sometimes to a harmful extent, in order to meet societal standards. This fixated need for women to be physically attractive has brought forth a fascination with different ways to reach ideal beauty.

JUNIOR THEME: edited thesis/introduction!!

I saw Bolos today during class and he really helped me focus my "why question" to formulate a thesis!!!

here it is ladies and gentlemen..... CRITICIZE AWAY!!

After being told by a theatre company that at 5'5" and 96 lbs she was overweight, Heidi Guenther developed an eating disorder. She died at age 22 as a result of anorexia and bulimia (Boston Globe). Women go to such great extents to achieve “beauty”. Many women, such as Heidi Guenther have lost their lives striving to be picturesque in pursuit of impossible standards. But, why are American women so obsessed with their own physical appearance? Americans have a fascination with the looks of women and they set the standards of beauty, therefore women obsess over their own appearance in order to meet these societal standards. The obsession with physical appearance has been created through advertisements showing women how they should look. Advertising has changed the role women play in society and how they are viewed. Through stereotypical gender roles, women are obliged to be physically beautiful. This fixated need for women to be attractive has brought forth a fascination with different ways to reach ideal beauty.

What do you guys think of the thesis???? Does it make sense? Is it good? "fluffy"?