Declaration of Independence

The  Declaration of Independence

December 6th, 2016

The Declaration of Grayson Rosenberg, exhausted student.

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one person to declare her independence from the preoccupation of the college prep culture, and to escape the American college preparation pressures, it is an inevitable measure that must be carried out, in order that American teenagers can live their lives.

Because the society that I live in places so much importance on college acceptance and the steps to get there, I refuse to live under the pressures that are presented to me every single day, those put there by others in my society. To prove that this is a necessary separation, let the following facts be known.

           The college application process pits peers against each other, teaching them to treat everything like a competition.

          Families spend copious amounts of time and money to prepare kids for the SATs and ACTs, which are supposed to represent all of a person’s book-smarts. Therefore, the tests don’t show a representation of what the student already knew, but what they learned in a short period of time for the sake of the test. Also, a written test can not analyze a student’s full abilities in all areas.

          College tours and applications take up so much time that they end up taking away from the actual learning in classes.

       There is so much stress for students in the process: the stress of SATs, ACTs, and other standardized tests, the stress of deciding which colleges to apply to and/or tour, the stress of writing the applications, and the stress of waiting to find out if you were accepted.

          Watching all of your friends get accepted into schools and still waiting to see if any schools want you can completely undermine a person’s confidence.

The fact that a student’s fate for the next four years, and possibly the rest of his/her life (depending on the outcome), rests in the hands of some admissions officer puts so much pressure on the student.

If someone were to try to get through the college application process without using tutors for the tests or competing with others to get the best scores, they would not be accepted into any of their top choice colleges, which further proves that there is no way to avoid the college prep environment.

Students complain about the above list all the time. I have seen examples directly from my peers. Students say how they could not finish work on time because they had to finish their applications, or that they couldn’t do what they wanted to because they had to study or do homework. No matter how many times we mention this, neither our teachers, nor our parents, nor the admissions officers acknowledge that fact and try to help rid us of the pressure.

Because of all of this, it is necessary for me to declare my independence from the college prep culture, so that I might enjoy my high school life, and stay true to what I need for myself for at least the next three years.

Dear Secretary Clinton

12/5/16

Dear Secretary Clinton –

First and foremost, I am writing to say Thank You. 

Thank you for your dedication to public service.  You have made our country and indeed, this planet, a better place. 

Thank you for your perseverance.  You have been knocked down so many times, I’ve lost count.  Yet you got right back up again, “shimmied” yourself off, and continued to fight for what you believe in.

Thank you for your grace under pressure.  Whether in the Situation Room, debating, or even sitting through sooo many hours of repeated interrogations, you’ve handled yourself with decorum, thoughtful consideration and unflabbability.

Thank you for showing my teenage daughter what women can do, but also what they are up against in the process.  Because of you, she knows that girls grow up to be women who can accomplish anything they set their minds to – but they better be ready to be tough and to be tough every day.

Thank you for lighting a fire under me.  Like many of my fellow citizens (especially women), I have been ruminating over the results of this presidential election.  I cannot sit and idly watch our country continue in the direction it is going. I have some thoughts on what actions to take, but the first one just had to be to connect with you.

While I am sure you are catching up on some well-needed rest, I have a sneaking suspicion you are just catching your breath.  I, of course, do not know what your next chapter will be, but I have a strong feeling it will not consist of an overabundance of walks in the woods, trips to the supermarket or local bookstore. You are not done.

In the meantime, I wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season.

Sincerely, your neighbor in southern Westchester,

Patricia M Cook

By The Book

Anyone ever ask you to recommend a good book?  I find those kinds of questions fraught with peril. 

Some people feel like they will be judged by the answer they give.  Should I recommend a classic?  What if my tastes are more low brow than that?  I can’t just recommend some trashy pulp crime book, can I?  And what if my tastes were more along the lines of romance novels or romantic comedies?  Some people like those.  What if those were my thing?  Would the person seeking a book recommendation think I was a sap?

Taste in books is a personal thing.  Unlike a movie or a TV show that could be over in a couple of hours or less, a book requires more of a commitment.  To start a book and see it through to completion, you generally need to be ready to spend hours.

            Personally, I don’t get to read many books.  Maybe 4-5 per year.  Like I said, a book is a serious time commitment.  I have a handful of favorite authors who churn out enough new books that they generally fulfill my reading needs each year.  They are Stephen King, John Grisham, Michael Crichton (unfortunately he doesn’t produce any new books), Dean Koontz and Michael Chambon.  Only read the first Harry Potter book (but saw the movies).  I’ve also read the occasional Elmore Leonard and a handful of others.  The rest of my annual reading is generally comprised of non-fiction stuff like biographies, autobiographies or fact-based/history-based retellings.

            Since you have hung in this far, I guess you’ve earned a few recommendations.  Some of my favorites from the past few years are “11/22/63” by Stephen King and the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson.  Now it’s your turn.  Lay yours on me.

Tips To Not Be Tired*

As a teenage girl, I find that I am always tired, even after having a solid 8 hours of sleep. Here are a few tips to help wake yourself up if you find yourself falling asleep during the day:

1. Eat a mint.

·       Find a really strong brand of mints (I recommend Altoids), and suck on them to try and wake yourself up with the strong taste. Eating about 6 at once works best for me.

2. Get up and walk around.

·       If you find yourself falling asleep in class, or someplace where you have to sit still for a long time, try excusing yourself and just walking around. Sometimes all you need is to get your blood flowing. I suggest a small hike to your nearest neighborhood construction sight. Between the walking and the loud banging, you should be woken right up.

3. Eat something sugary.

·       Another thing that helps me is getting some sugar into your body. You may just need to get your blood sugar pumping, even if it only helps for a short amount of time. For me, eating a full cake is approximately enough energy for a half hour.

4. Read something.

·       Waking up your brain is also important to waking up the rest of you. If you read something, it helps your brain to focus and power up, thus helping you wake up. My favorite brain-jogging material for a light read is the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. It’s a fascinating read, and it certainly wakes me up.

5. Think about interesting things.

·       If your teacher or your boss is droning on about some boring-as-hell stuff that you could not care less about, try spacing out and imagining yourself somewhere fun, like Hawaii, the Bahamas, or Laugarbakki, a small town in Iceland. I’m sure what your teacher/boss had to say wasn’t that important.

*If none of these strategies work, give up on life as a human and hibernate with the bears, because that seems to be the only way to get some damn sleep.

Name The Perfect Song

A few years ago, I created a playlist for my son for Christmas.  My goal was to create a sample of “great songs” throughout the years.  How do I define a great song?  Good question.  I don’t know.  I’ll tell you when I hear one.  I guess everyone has their own criteria but it probably always comes back to that – you know it when you hear it.  Whether it’s the first time you listen to it or the 50^th time, it always hits you when it comes on the radio that THIS is a great song.

Since then, I’ve made a new playlist each year.  Here are some samples of what’s been on one of the previous playlists:

A Day In The Life – Beatles

Movin’ Out – Billy Joel

Like A Rolling Stone – Bob Dylan

Born To Run – Bruce Springsteen

Turn! Turn! Turn! – The Byrds

Johnny B. Goode –Chuck Berry

Under The Boardwalk – The Drifters

Urgent – Foreigner

In The Air Tonight – Phil Collins

Holiday – Green Day

I Love Rock ‘N Roll – Joan Jett

Life’s Been Good – Joe Walsh

Watching The Wheels – John Lennon

Separate Ways – Journey

Stairway To Heaven – Led Zeppelin

House of the Rising Sun – The Animals

Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd

Nights In White Satin – Moody Blues

Another Brick In The Wall – Pink Floyd

Roxanne – The Police

Another One Bites The Dust – Queen

Smooth – Santana

Too Much Time On My Hands – Styx

Pinball Wizard – The Who

Dust In The Wind – Kansas

Rocket Man – Elton John

This list probably leans more heavily toward classic rock of the 70s and 80s.  What can I say -- those were my formative years.  I’ve included artists from the 90s and 2000s as well (e.g., Black Eyed Peas, Train).  I have tried not to use more than 2 songs from a given artist – maybe three if they were chock full of hits.  In any case, I’m working on this year’s list and am always open to suggestions.

What would you consider to be essential additions to an 18 year old’s music playlist?  

Patriotism; a Primer

I really tried – I promise you I really did.  All week long I have been thinking about what I would like my first Holidailies entry to be about.  Something outright creative?  Something holiday-themed since today is the first day of December?  But each and every day, I kept coming back to the one thing I am overwhelmingly feeling most passionate and actually have something to say about: politics and the current state our country is in.

Now, for those of you who do not know me, I will say this up front: I am a middle-of-the-road Democrat.  That means while I lean left, it is not so simple to label me as such since there are policies where my opinion would actually define me as more of a Republican.  So, for any of you out there reading this who habitually disregard, disrespect and/or lump everybody together, please stop reading and wasting my time and yours.  Move on.  Really.  Go back to whatever single news source to which your unquestioning mind leads you.

Okay, now that we got that out of the way, let me also say that I know better than to try to figure out – at this point – why people voted the way they did.  And more importantly, I know better than to try to get them to acknowledge that they’ve made a very serious mistake.  If they couldn’t see it then, they cannot yet see it now so we will let time play that out.

More interesting to me at this very moment is to talk about Patriotism.  Yes, with a capital “P”. You’ll see why later.  A quick wiki search reveals this definition:

Patriotism is an emotional attachment to a nation which an individual recognizes as their homeland. This attachment, also known as national feeling or national pride, can be viewed in terms of different features relating to one's own nation, including ethnic, cultural, political or historical aspects.

What has been troubling me -- especially of late -- is the accusation from many of our fellow citizens, that if a person criticizes our country (on any topic) that one does not love the country.  And therefore, cannot be a patriot.  I take issue with every step of this not-so-logical deduction.  First, a person can criticize the country and still love it.  In fact, one could argue that s/he could love it even more than the complacent patriot because s/he cared enough and took the time to try to improve upon it.  Secondly, does patriotism really = love anyway?  What exactly are we loving?  Go back to the definition: the most we can really love is our personal experience and isn’t that very different depending on who you are – age, socio-economic status, race, sex, education, heck – diet even.   You see what I am saying?

I read an article recently that discusses patriotism in detail (see link below). This article states that there are four kinds of patriotism.  First, there is the Mafia version.  This is the kind that embraces only strength – not goodness, or ideals.  The second type of patriotism has more of a national pride flavor; it is a belief that America is infallible, inherently good, and a nation that all others should and do look up to.  The third kind connects love of country to ideals.  However, this definition acknowledges the disparity between America’s ideals and its reality.  The last category of patriotism looks more like anti-patriotism:  this group focuses only on the failures of America to live up to its ideals – basically viewing the country as one big disappointment.

Now back to that capital “P”.  I feel like the people whose definition of patriotism is either the Mafia version or the national pride version consider themselves Patriots like it’s some sort of third political platform or a club or team or better yet, a religion.  They and they alone own it. 

It is my observation that the persons who scream the loudest “if you don’t love this country and love it as it is, get out” regard themselves as Patriots.  Literally. On paper.  Using that word exactly. They looooovvvvee this country with all of their hearts (well, at least whatever it is they think they know the country to be). They worship the American flag and scorn anybody who would dare light it afire.  (Hello freedoms of speech and expression?) Just for the record, it makes me very uncomfortable and upset if I see video of someone doing that but my go-to reaction is wondering what the heck made them so upset that they felt the need to do that, not ‘how dare they do that’.  That attitude is a very dangerous one. 

What I have been mulling over here really is a recognition that we, as Americans, are not even starting in the same place with the same definition.  Who are we?  What do we stand for?  What do we want?  Big questions that are getting harder than ever to answer.  I could wrap this up nicely with some platitude, but I think it is more honest to leave the reader hanging because that is reality right now – we are hanging.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/09/colin-kaepernick-and-patriotism-in-the-obama-era.html

Holidailies 2015 In Review

This year we wrote about

Things that are regular or inside and out.

If you’ve read the whole month then you already know,

But here’s a recap for those who are slow:

We wrote about donating,

Big trees, and bad essays

Technology, a farm, and

Bending time and space.

We wrote about college,

And then college again.

We wrote about M*A*S*H 6 times

And about procrastination.

We wrote 7 poems,

4 of which were mine.

And after this poem,

They’ll be one less than nine.

We wrote about Star Wars (twice),

Latkes, and Halloween.

And with these last three posts,

We welcomed 2016.