I was just watching John Stewart's, "The Daily Show" and saw something as equally disturbing as it was amusing. If Rob Blagojevich goes to jail for his crimes, (which I mean, let's face it...how could he not?) then it is statistically more likely that you will go to jail for becoming an Illinois state governor than murdering someone. Only 48% of murderers go to jail for their crimes; On the other hand, currently-three of the last seven Illinois governors have gone to jail. Rob Blagojevich would be the fourth in the past eight, meaning that 50% of Illinois governors have gone to jail in the past eight terms; If you ask me, those aren't very good odds.
Throughout the whole Balgojevich ordeal, I've really been disgusted with how greedy he's been. I mean, as if trying to sell a senate seat wasn't bad enough, now there's been news of him threatening to cut of state funding to a Children's Hospital if they didn't donate $50,000 to his campaign fund? It's really appalling. He should have studied Thoreau's work a little bit harder in high school. Doesn't he know that life's only real essentials are food, fuel, clothing, and shelter? Hmm, apparently not..
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Stuck on the track
"Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?" -Henry David Thoreau
Yesterday in class, we discussed Joe Trevian's daily schedule, and while it's a schedule that's really become second nature to me, something about it being written down really surprised me. I had never really realized just how much my life was run by a series of bells. Wake up early, go from class to class with few breaks, then go to extracurriculars, then go home, have dinner, do homework, and go to bed; Like clockwork. And it really brings me to Thoreau's question, why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?
The whole New Trier setup is meant to get you into the, as i've mentioned in past blogs, ideal "good" college; and that's good in some ways, I mean, I do want to get into a nice college. But at the same time I can't help but feeling like as a result of all this, we're just living in the future. Planning for things that haven't happened yet, setting ourselves on this one single track. Good college -> good job -> high paying job -> happiness? Thoreau suggeded, "as long as possible live free and uncommited." I think that this is a concept that gets overlooked often at New Trier. We're all basically commited to the college track from the start, but even within the school itself-we are even more commited to tracks. If you have any hopes of making the Varsity lacrosse team your senior year, you have to be playing freshman, sophomore, and junior year-along with practicing or playing on club teams during the offseason. Club heads are almost always three or four year members of the club. New Trier's competitiveness makes it that if you really want to reach the top levels of something, or even participate at all, you have to be committed from the start. Some of these things will never change; but I do think that I am going to start making an effort to try new things every once in a while, get out of the routine; because I do think it's important to focus on making yourself happy in the present, not just to focus on plans for your future happiness.
Yesterday in class, we discussed Joe Trevian's daily schedule, and while it's a schedule that's really become second nature to me, something about it being written down really surprised me. I had never really realized just how much my life was run by a series of bells. Wake up early, go from class to class with few breaks, then go to extracurriculars, then go home, have dinner, do homework, and go to bed; Like clockwork. And it really brings me to Thoreau's question, why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?
The whole New Trier setup is meant to get you into the, as i've mentioned in past blogs, ideal "good" college; and that's good in some ways, I mean, I do want to get into a nice college. But at the same time I can't help but feeling like as a result of all this, we're just living in the future. Planning for things that haven't happened yet, setting ourselves on this one single track. Good college -> good job -> high paying job -> happiness? Thoreau suggeded, "as long as possible live free and uncommited." I think that this is a concept that gets overlooked often at New Trier. We're all basically commited to the college track from the start, but even within the school itself-we are even more commited to tracks. If you have any hopes of making the Varsity lacrosse team your senior year, you have to be playing freshman, sophomore, and junior year-along with practicing or playing on club teams during the offseason. Club heads are almost always three or four year members of the club. New Trier's competitiveness makes it that if you really want to reach the top levels of something, or even participate at all, you have to be committed from the start. Some of these things will never change; but I do think that I am going to start making an effort to try new things every once in a while, get out of the routine; because I do think it's important to focus on making yourself happy in the present, not just to focus on plans for your future happiness.
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