Blog Post #4

I used to live in Jacksonville before I came to UF, and during my junior year of high school the dress code changed. It used to always be that girls could wear skirts/dresses as long as they were less than four inches above the knee, and girls could also wear tank tops (since it's hot, of course; it's Florida). However, during my junior year, the dress code changed to where girls could no longer wear tank tops or leggings. Apparently, they were too "distracting" to the boys. Of course, nobody liked this change. At first, it was just annoying, but the more that girls thought about it, the more offensive it became. Instead of teaching girls to embrace their bodies and to be comfortable with themselves, the school was basically saying that boys' attention spans were more important. Also, since girls were sent to the dean's office if they were out of dress code, it took away from their class time. Instead of girls focusing more on school, the school was making them focus more on what they were wearing. During my senior year, I dislocated my knee and I had to wear a brace. However, my brace did not fit over or under any pair of my jeans, and it was about to be winter so I couldn't keep wearing dresses and skirts. I decided to wear leggings instead because that was the only thing I could wear with my brace and not get too cold. Of course, I got dress coded. When I talked to the dean, I obviously wasn't very happy about it, and I started ranting that it was the only thing that I could wear. I think I kind of caught him off guard a little bit and he let me go back to class. After that, I wasn't caught for dress code again (I wore leggings for another three months). The boys in my classes still passed, no one was offended that I was wearing leggings, and literally nothing changed because of the leggings. The school overreacted by making that new dress code in the first place. Whoever's idea it was wanted students to be more focused on school instead of what they were wearing, but it had the opposite effect since girls were getting sent out of class to go change.

Blog Post #3

My mom is literally in love with everything about Disney. We had season passes for a solid six or seven years and we saw every new Disney movie that came out until I was about thirteen. When Freaky Friday came out, we saw it in theaters as a family. I posted a link below, and at 17 seconds into the video, the mom yells out the car window, "Make good choices!" as she is dropping her daughter off at school. I don't know why, but my mom thought that was the greatest thing ever. So ever since she saw that movie, she would always tell me to make good choices when she is saying goodbye to me. She still does it to this day. I never really paid attention to it, but now that I think about it, that's some great advice. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UShtvCen6So

Evaluative Writing

Evaluative writing, to me, means to look at every aspect of an object or an idea. Usually in evaluative writing, one will compare and contrast one object to another. Establishing criteria is so important for an evaluative essay because that's what makes the reader interested in reading the paper. In the essay, "It's Easy, but Wrong, to Blame the Music," Hilary Rosen refers to music as "an outlet." I agree with her statement because teenagers need something to take their anger/feelings out on, and music is perfect for that. Whether it be singing as loud as they can or just listening to the lyrics, music can be so important to young people.

Blog Post #2

So this picture is probably one of my favorite pictures from my senior year. I was on the cheer team all four years of high school, and the captains every year were three seniors who were voted on by the team, with the coach having the final say. However, there were four girls who were taken seriously enough to fill the captain position, so one of the girls would have been upset if she wasn't made captain. Unfortunately, that girl was me. I would've been fine with it if the captains benefited the team, but they made the entire year all about themselves. Cheering at football games was always my favorite part of the cheer season, but I hated it senior year. This particular game was annoying to cheer at and just not a fun time, so I was in a bad mood after the game ended. Everyone would always go on the field after games and talk to each other. I was talking to my friends, and this little girl who I didn't even know came up to me. She said that I was her favorite cheerleader and told me that I inspired her to start cheering. It literally made my whole night. Then, she asked to get a picture with me and she was just so excited. With that being said, this picture obviously makes me really happy. I think my body looks kind of awkward though. I don't know how to take pictures with little kids because I'm not really a "kid" person. The mood of this picture is happy. I think it's easy to see that I'm genuinely smiling and that the little girl is excited.

Runaway

The scene with "All of the Lights" is a very confusing scene. A little boy runs around with red smoke, and red is a very sexual color. Kanye is showing the bird/alien new things like fireworks and the parade, and she looks very innocent during this. The little boy also looked innocent, so this could symbolize that the bird is very innocent so far; but there's underlying sexual tension between her and Kanye (hence the red smoke). The parade also looks like a cult marching, and the large figures that they hold up look like members of the KKK. However, one figure is wearing white and one figure is wearing black. Eventually, a large Michael Jackson head comes between the two figures. This could be a tribute to Michael Jackson to show that he was black once and then turned white, and people still loved him anyways. Kanye could be saying that it doesn't matter what color your skin is as long as you have talent.

Blog Post #1

To graduate my high school, I only needed three science credits. Considering that I hate science, I picked a super easy science class my junior year, thinking that I just wouldn't take a science class my senior year and have an easy schedule. I thought it was a pretty good idea, but my parents literally forced me to take a science class senior year. They said that I needed to because "colleges like to see four years of science on applications." I wasn't happy about it because the only science classes that I could take were Anatomy and Physics. I didn't want to take Anatomy because at the end of the year it was mandatory to dissect a cat, and I love cats too much to take one apart. I didn't want to take Physics because it just sounded like a hard class. But everyone I talked to said that Physics was mostly math, and I'm good at math so I just went with that. I was not looking forward to it, so I walked into class in a really bad mood on the first day. But after the first week, I kinda loved it. At the end of the quarter, I got my report card and I ended up getting an A (and that was kind of a big deal because I literally suck at science). It was then that I realized that I want to have a career that involves Physics, so I decided that I want to be an engineer when I grow up. If it weren't for that class, I don't know what I would be majoring in right now.