Senior Trip

            During my spring break of senior year my family and I went on a cruise. Ever since 2012, I have wanted to go on a cruise. On the boat there was all you can eat pizza and ice cream that was available all hours. Also there was a hot tub and two pools. There was no shortage of things to do while we spent the day on the boat.

            Our first port was Progresso. While we were signing up for the cruise we had picked things to do at each port. At Progresso we picked kayaking. We got off the boat and found our kayaking tour guide. Then we proceeded to our kayaking location. My brother and I were in a kayak together and my parents were in another one. We saw a lot of pink flamingos, and we went through jungle trees. These trees were all tangled together, it was a tight squeeze trying to guide a kayak through. When we had finished kayaking we still had some time to kill before we had to be back on the boat, so we walked around the pier to all the different little gift shops. Progresso was an experience I will never forget.

            The next day we woke up in Cozumel. On this day we chose to go paddle boarding and snorkeling. We took a bus to a resort on the ocean. At this resort there was a place to lay in the sand, a pool, paddle boarding, snorkeling, and a restaurant. First we paddle boarded. This was a lot easier than I expected. Next we went snorkeling, normally when you go snorkeling you have to look for the fish. But there was fish swimming all around you here. The water was so clear that you could we the bottom of the ocean perfectly. The coolest part about snorkeling was when our guide swam down to a rock and pulled out a sting ray. Most the people in our group were scared, but I was amazed by this. Next we ate at the ocean side restaurant, I ate some of the best enchiladas. We headed back to the ship early, so we could shop on the pier.

            Cozumel and Progresso are nothing alike. Cozumel is more tourists centered. They had lots of shops and things for tourists to do there. Where as Progresso didn’t really have anything to do other than the expedition that you signed up for.  

Dirty Jobs

In the interview with Mike Rowe and Nick Gillespie they discussed a lot of important things. An interesting point that Nick brought up I thought was “The Real Problem”. He then goes on to tell us that the real problem is that society is pushing every kid to go to college.

Mike responds by listing all the things wrong with pushing kids to go to college, including the skills gap. Also known as the skills that are left out of a college education that may apply to job involving labor. Because of this skill gap companies can’t find people qualified to do this job. Examples of these jobs are carpentry, electrician, truck drivers, and welders. I think this point is worth noting. There are so many well paying jobs available that don’t require a college degree. People are graduating college with no jobs available in their degree. As a student this caught my attention. No one wants to spend money on a degree that can’t even get them a job.

            The next big issue they discuss about pushing kids to go to college is the amount of student debt. College is expensive, so expensive most people have to work through college and they have to get help from there parents. Mike says we, as a country, our trillions of dollars in debt just from student loans. This doesn’t make any since to me why are we handing out money that the tax payers have to pay. Not only that but we are also putting this country in even bigger debt. I think most people go to college to follow the crowd. They don’t understand that there are other options to be successful in life.

            The most interesting thing that Mike says during this at the end he says “Follow your passion”. He then goes on to explain that his whole show has always been about people that have followed their passion. If your passion involves college good for you, but if it doesn’t that’s ok too. There are lots of options to help you be successful and have a happy life. I think this interview shows us that.

Social Media Bad or Good?

 Social media can be a scary thing if you haven’t grown up around it all your life. Cell phones are still a fairly new invention. I remember when cell phones became popular. I was in the fifth grade. The summer going into sixth grade all my friends got a cell phone. It was just a little LG flip phone, but it was a big deal. We could finally make plans to hang out, or ask about homework. I believe social media and cell phones have both good and bad things.

“Being online isn’t just something we do. It has become who we are, transforming the very nature of the self.”-David Brooks (Intimacy for the Avoidant). I think a lot of the reason behind this is people get bored. Being on social media all the time is just a time killer. Another reason people like cell phones and social media is because of how convenient it is to just pull out your cell phone. It has made long distance relationships so much easier, because you can literally be face to face with your girlfriend any time of the day. I also think social media has kept friends and family a lot closer to each other, opposed to not having it. Others might call that networking. As a social media user I am able to network and find just about anyone, or anything I want.

However, one thing that is bad about social media is very addicting. We are all guilty of checking our phones during the day. “We check our phones on average 221 times a day-about every 4.3 minutes.”-David Brooks (Intimacy for the Avoidant). I think that is absolutely ridiculous. I knew we checked our phones a lot, but had no idea it was this reaccuring. Another reason social media is bad, it has a lot of scams. These scams like to trick people into getting their money, and they also bring a lot of viruses to your computer. Not only is social media ripping people off, but it is also distracting people and causing car crashes. In some cases, people have died from cell phone use while driving. Social media has become a part of every teenager’s life in some aspect. It’s as if we are all robots to twitter.

            These are some reasons why social media is bad and good. I personally like social media even though I wish it was less addicting. I think it’s incredible that you can look up a profile for anyone you want.