Congrats, You're A Grad! (Of 8th Grade...)

As many people know, this time of the year is graduation season. Whether it be college or high school, there is always another graduation party happening. However, in the North Shore, I realized that people take graduation way more serious than in other places. The first time I noticed this was when I was driving through Kenilworth and saw huge, 8-10 feet banners in the yards of people, saying "Congratulations graduate!" I thought to myself 'okay, that is a really big banner, but I guess high school graduation is a big day'. However, after looking closer at the fine print at the bottom of the sign, I realized it was for their 8th graders, and they were congratulating them on graduating junior high. I don't think many people would even consider celebrating junior high graduation, but on the North Shore it is a big deal.

As we have been talking about in class throughout these past few weeks, there are many different factors and indicators of class. I think that these graduation signs are a clear indicator of the class of people living in the North Shore. I was talking to a friend, and she had said that her mom grew up in a small town in Michigan, and when she graduated 8th grade there was no party, no ceremony, basically they just expected you to go to high school. No questions asked, no congrats given. It wasn't a big deal. When comparing the North Shore to small towns around the country, like the Michigan example given, there is clearly a big difference between the two places and their cultures.

These graduation posters and parades are just one class marker, and there are tons of others littered all around the North Shore, things we do that don't seem to be a trend in other towns. But, after all the discussions we have had in class about social class, when I saw this trend I immediately made the connection. It connected our discussions perfectly to the reality of our surroundings, and I couldn't help but blog about it.

Coping With Death

Note: This is in some ways a follow-up to my previous blog post, False Portrayals, and it might be helpful to read it, although it is not necessary.

This week on The Bachelorette the producers were faced with a really tough decision. One of the contestants, Eric Hill, died earlier this year in a freak para-gliding accident. He had already been kicked off the show, but he did go far into the show, thus they have a lot of footage of him on the dates. According to him his occupation was an explorer, and his goal was to go to every single country in 1200 days.

Although this is such a sad story and the way he died was very tragic, the producers have to deal with this in a different way. Do they show the footage of him, even though everyone knows that the person they are watching on TV is actually dead, or do they completely cut him from the show? I don't know what I would do in this situation. On the one hand, they can't completely cut him from the show because that could be viewed as rude, since he was a part of the show and it would feel incomplete without him. However, on the other hand, if they show his scenes in their entirety it could be viewed as insensitive, because all his friends and family have to cope with his death again and it would almost feel like his is living.


When he died, many people expressed their sadness, but there was an overwhelming amount of people who first thought, What are they going to do on the show? I think that this whole story is a good example of how jobs or other things, including media, can consume people's lives. There were so many people that didn't even think about how sad the situation once, but rather they thought about how it would affect their viewing experience. People in America go-go-go, and often their lives revolve around their work, while they don't stop and take moments to appreciate life and grieve when sad things happen. They have too much on their mind and are often concerned about the wrong things.

False Portrayals

Last Monday, I, along with many other excited viewers tuned into the season premiere of the Bachelorette. I am a sucker for reality television, so obviously I watch the Bachelor/Bachelorette. I don't believe it really works, and don't take it seriously whatsoever, but I still love to watch it. All the made-up drama can be really amusing. And clearly a lot of other people find it amusing as well. 7.17 million people watched the premiere this week.

Many people are completely against all reality television, saying it is trash and not at all real. I definitely agree that it isn't real and can see where they are coming from. It is not normal at all for people to fall in love in two months, while there are cameras filming their every move and every word. In no way is that like real life. Reality TV has become more and more prominent in our society in recent years, with shows ranging from The Kardashians to The Real Housewives, to name a few.

I think with these shows becoming more and more popular it shows a common theme. In all these shows the producers are using the people/families for entertainment. It is so often that these producers create fake drama within the show to generate viewers and to make their show interesting, which also gives people a wrong idea of what the person is like in real life. America often portrays these celebrities (if we can call them that, considering they often have no talent) as completely different people on reality shows, giving a false impression of them to the fans. This then makes the viewers believe that life is completely different than it actually is. It is next to impossible to fall in love in two months, ON TV. People shouldn't believe that it is.

Finishing What You Start

Last week the annual NFL Draft occurred. Every year football players enter the draft, hoping a professional team will decide to draft them. It is the way into the National Football League for all these athletes. My family was watching it on ESPN and I was struck by the age of some of the people drafted. Many of them had opted out of finishing their college careers. This is not just for the NFL though. Many baseball players as well as basketball players leave college early or skip college altogether in order to enter the pros. For example, basketball star Lebron James skipped college and was drafted right out of high school.

I find this very interesting. I mean, these kids are getting a college education (a lot of time for free), and will get a diploma which can help them out a lot later on in life. However, by leaving college you won't get a diploma. According to an article, there are many reasons for leaving early. Some of those include entering the pros before you get injured, almost as a security blanket. That way you will know you made it and won't have to worry about getting hurt.

However, this article also says that one of the reasons student-athletes should stay in college is because it "teaches maturity". I could not believe this to be more true. I think oftentimes in many realms, not just sports, Americans look ahead to the next thing and the greater thing, often without finishing what they started. This is just one example of that. These student-athletes are looking to the future (and there is nothing wrong with that), but oftentimes they jump ahead without finishing what they started, meaning school. People need to learn to reach the end or reach their primary goals, but often this does not happen.

Sleepless Nights

Junior theme: check. I have turned in my essay and I can already feel a huge weight lifted off me. My stress level has seriously declined, considering I lived and breathed that essay for the past couple of weeks. However, I know soon my stress will increase as I will have more projects or tests in other classes. This whole ordeal has got me thinking about stress levels, especially in teenagers, and the effects of stress.

I did some research, and according to a survey done, teenagers have stress levels during the school year that compare of equal that of adults. Adults have responsibilities such as providing for their families, working, and other things, while teenagers have school. If you think about it, teenagers are put under so much stress by the amount of homework they have, all the tests and essays, while at the same time being encouraged to join clubs or sports. It is almost too much for a 16 year old to handle. According to WebMD, "[teenagers] don't sleep as well, which feeds back into increasing their stress". Speaking from experience, as I am a teenager, I can verify this information. Personally I get probably an average of 6-7 hours of sleep a night, and am up very late doing work because I had obligations after school, such as sports. 

I think sleep is a big contributor to stress. I would be much more attentive and alert throughout the day, and I would be able to pay attention to what I was learning, instead of feeling like I am sleep-walking through the day. I think this whole idea of working as many hours a day as you can is a common American theme. It is a common belief that in order to get ahead you have to put in more work. This is true, but oftentimes people seem to take that idea to an extreme and work late into the night while thinking sleep is unnecessary. This then stresses them out more and tires them, which could ultimately lead to a weaker performance. I think the idea of constantly working and constantly moving is extremely prevalent in society today, but it definitely has its consequences, including a huge rise in stress levels. 

Women In The Work Force

While doing my junior theme research, I came across a statistic that really shocked me. Part of my research is the number of women working in the athletic departments of schools versus the number of men doing the same thing. I came across an article from the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administration (NACWAA). In this article they say that "women occupy five of 120 athletic-director positions in Division I-A".

This seems absurd to me. From what I calculated based on the above statistic, 4% of the athletic directors in Division I-A are women, while the remaining 96% are men. That is so uneven. It is not even close. This proves that athletics are a department almost completely dominated by men. Men clearly run the show when it comes to collegiate athletics, which is possibly one of the reasons that colleges fund men's sports much more than they fund women's sports. The money goes man to man, and women are put at a disadvantage.

This is something that is prevalent in all aspects of society today, not just sports. There are much fewer women CEO's in the work force than their are men. Men still statistically make more money than women, with women making 77 cents to every dollar a man makes (Time). It seems to be a common theme, which leads me to believe that although the feminist movement has come very far in the past decades, there is still much more work to be done to gain equality between the genders in the work force.

The Research Process: A Warning

As I continue my junior theme, I have come to the realization that many aspects of the research process are very challenging. Also, I have come to find that although the internet is a huge blessing, as it gives us immediate access to endless amounts of information, it can also be a curse. Teachers have always told me that the internet can be a big black hole, and can suck you into it to the point where you are no longer looking at valid information, however I never really realized how accurate they were until this point in my research process.

When researching my why question, Why do men's sports get significantly more funding than women's sports?, I came across many different articles and statistics, many of which directly contradicted each other. I really had to pay attention to what sites I was getting my information for, as I realized it was often hard to judge whether or not information I found was valid.

One tip I found for research through this process: always go through a database or somewhere you know will link you to valid articles, do NOT just type in a few words into google. Google does not sort it's results by validity, so the first hit could be a totally random website. Always, always, always start from a place that you know will give you valid results. Oftentimes schools have links to valid starting points, just like the New Trier Library does.

So, I guess this blog is less of an informational piece of writing, and serves more as a warning. From my experiences in the past few weeks, what I cover in this blog is probably the best piece of advice I can offer anybody doing research on something.