Simply Existing

  Why am I talking about this? So the other day I was reading the Great Gatsby. Why? Because I need a good hook for this blog. In the book, this guy, Jay Gatsby, is very rich, and he flaunts his richness everywhere. That got me thinking, how likely is it for someone to be rich, like a millionaire or billionaire or whatever. This whole thing isn’t to say that you should give up if you want to be rich, but just to maybe have a different perspective on it. What are the chances? Well, in America, you have about a 3% chance of becoming a millionaire at some point in your life (based on the percentage of the US population which are millionaires) and out of those 3%, 80% inherited some amount of money. After your post-graduate degree, you have a 32% chance. Again, this isn’t to say you shouldn’t aim for this if you want to at all, but rather to say that, well, you have to get lucky (or have really rich parents) to get there. John, What are you trying to say? Well, enough dillydallyin...

 Dear general news outlets, as a teenager who looks at the news occasionally, I feel that should speak on the issue of the use of violent images in the media. I personally think that violent images should be used when the topic discussed requires it. I would say it’s required to show the true nature of certain situations, such as war or human rights violations or disease outbreaks. I would say that these images are very necessary, in depicting events that should be taken seriously. I myself have seen how easy it is to downplay these things in our own minds. Although we all understand that violence exists, not all of us understand the real-life repercussions and horrors of things like this. For a more modern example, COVID was a pretty serious thing, and it was downplayed a lot in some places, and that was at least a hindrance to stopping the pandemic. It’s just so easy to sit back and say “Wow, that sucks…anyway-” and not truly considering what it means to see violence. “How can ...

Is Race like, a thing? Kind of. In essence, race has cemented itself as a social construct, but ultimately does not have any basis in biology. No one can find someone’s race with a DNA test. Whether it should be done away with or has a function in society is for you to decide, and I won’t be talking about today. What I will be talking about differences between “races” and such. So, how do we explain differences, like how smart we are, or even our differing skin tones?   Differences in Culture                First off, many of these differences can be attributed to the culture we grew up in. For example, stereotypically, Chinese people get better grades. However, this can be attributed to the way education is in China, which focuses more on grades and exam results, while western education places its focus on critical thinking. Many differences in intellect or athleticism fall in the same vein.   Genetics and Clines   ...

 (I use ‘Spiegelman’ when referring to the author, and ‘Art’ when referring to his depiction in the book) What is Maus?               In Maus by Art Spiegelman, he shows his father, Vladek’s experience in the Concentration camps in World War Two. It’s in the form of a visual novel, which allows for more visual metaphors and other things like that. But if you’re reading this, you probably already know this, so let’s get into it.   Context               In the beginning of chapter 2 of volume 2, there’s this small intermission where Art talks about how his father died before he wrote this part and what happened in his life since the release of Volume 1. He then has an exchange with his therapist where he talks about his kind of survivor’s guilt, wondering if he should finish the book at all. Throughout this whole section, Spiegelman portrays...

Me writing my synthesis essay (2022 colorized)  How do I write Good-er? I’m sure all have thought at some point that our writing is boring. To be honest, I still do! Maybe it drags on, or there’s a lack of tone, whatever that means. Writing is ultimately a grueling process in which we transfer our thoughts on to the page and try to make it palatable. So, I thought I’d toss out a couple tips or something like that. Your First Draft is Going to Suck Yeah, you heard that right. Unless by some divine miracle you write perfectly like the 6/6s we read in class, your first draft is always going to be bad. The point I’m trying to make is that its fine if your draft looks like a dumpster fire and reads like a train derailing, because you can always revise later. Just get it done so you have some clay to mold. Now, the only bit that I’d say you want to get right first is your thesis, since it affects the rest of the essay.  Put Some Personality into it       ...