Sugar Rush

Everyone is aware of the standards society put to beauty. There is a standard that everyone should conform to. Aesthetic beauty and economic class seems to count most in this world.  It might not be an issue to someone who is already blessed with good looks and a good life, but I still want to share this to you and I want the world to know how much I loath society’s ”standards”.

This afternoon, I was at Dunkin’ Donuts, enjoying my cup of coffee and doughnuts after lunch while crafting my talumpati for Filipino13 class. I heard the security guard talking to somebody outside the store so I looked up and saw an old woman who looked dirty and unkempt. The guard was asking her what she wanted and the old lady said that she wanted to buy something. The guard obviously did not believe her because she looked so poor that he found it unbelievable. Fortunately, the ladies behind the counter told the guard to open the door and let her in. She had a huge smile on her face when she was finally let in and walked to the counter saying, “Mupalit ko. Naa ko’y kwarta.” while waving her folded money in the air. After purchasing a box of doughnuts,  she gleefully told the guard, “Nipalit ko noh? naa lagi ko kwarta.” Then, she was out of the store.

This is a perfect example of how harsh society is, especially to poor people. Economic class plays a big role in how the people treat you. To think the the old lady’s mere appearance played a big role in the guard’s decision not to let her in the store! How discriminating! But then, if we look at the ladies behind the counter and incorporate them into the context of the real world, I’m glad to know that some people still care and that these people exist. I wish we could have more of these people in society.  

Economic class and appearance play a big role in society today. It determines how kind or how harsh people woul treat a human being. But we don’t have to conform to these “standards”. Knowing that this is wrong and undesirable, we can still change this perception in our own little way. I’m encouraging you to break away from the mold society has set on everyone. Hopefully, we can slowly change the way the world thinks and sees.

From www.ahajokes.com/fp004.html

17. You can jump start your car without cables.

16. You answer the door before people knock.

15. You get a speeding ticket even when you are parked.

14. You’ve worn out your third pair of shoes this week.

13. Your eyes stay open even when you sneeze.

12. You grind coffee beans in your mouth.

11. You can type sixty words per minute — with your feet.

10. You soak your dentures in coffee overnight.

9. You sleep with your eyes open.

8. You have a picture of your coffee mug on your coffee mug.

7. Instant coffee takes too long to make.

6. You channel surf faster without the remote.

5. You don’t sweat… you percolate.

4. You’ve built a miniature city out of little plastic stirrers.

3. You short out motion detectors.

2. You walk twenty miles on your treadmill before you realize it’s not plugged in.

and last but not least…

1. The only time you are standing still is during an earthquake!

I hate myself these days. I always tend to procrastinate even if I promised myself a million times not to. I make a lot of promises to myself and even write a schedule for the next day. Here’s an example of my “procrastinating day”.

I love my course. I wouldn’t take any other course than Mass Communication. Naturally, I would say that I love studying. But when the alarm rings at 8:30am, I immediately turn it off, read the bible and pray before I start my day. But the weather is kinda cold and it’s about to rain. So I lay back down on my bed and curl up under my blanket while listening to music in my MP4 until I fall back to sleep.

Then I wake up again at around 9:40am and I realized that I just missed another meeting so I text my friends informing them that I can’t make it then my eyes just seem to close by itself and I fall back to sleep.

I wake up for the third time and it’s 11:00am and the room is starting to get hot as the sun is shining brightly already so I am forced to get up. I was supposed to write some news story I gathered the day before for Com21 and I remember that I haven’t written my talumpati yet which is due next week. So I grab some coffee and freshen up.

Before starting my “day”, I stop by the carinderia to brunch. After brunch, I then head to the library not to study but to read some travel stories in the American Studies Resource Center (ASRC).

At 6pm, the ASRC closes and I head to the third floor of the lib to read the day’s newspaper to catch up on what’s happening, at the same time, matter loading for the next debate tournament or for the next practice.

Then, a fellow debater texts me asking if I can debate. Knowing that I have loads of schoolwork to do, I still text back the I can debate.

Still thinking about my news story and talumpati, I head to the carinderia again for dinner. After dinner, I head back to the the boarding house and take a shower before finally doing my schoolwork.

When I am finally ready for writing, I suddenly feel sleepy as the clock says it’s 12mn. But before going to sleep, I read a few chapters of Chinese Cinderella…just some habit I developed. After praying and listening to some music, it’s 2am and I drift to sleep thinking that tomorrow is another day and I should do all those schoolwork that’s starting to make me feel guilty.

Promise after another promise. Post-it after another unchecked post-it. The cycle continues and I wonder how to stop it.

This is unlike any beauty tip you have known. I just wanna share it here because I know that a lot of people will benefit from it and will find it more effective than a 25,ooopesos worth of face cream (really. A cream as expensive as that exists.)

For attractive lips, speak words of kindeness.

For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair, let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day.

For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed; never throw out anyone.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms.

As you grow older, you will discover that you ahve two hands; one for helping yourself and the other for helping others. =)

No wonder Audrey Hepburn is an icon. For me, she’s more than that. She redefined BEAUTY AND STRENGTH better than any beauty “expert” had and ever will.  

1. Coffee (and chocolate)…therefore, the title of this blog…Sugar Rush =)

2. Travel–I get a high from pulling my stroller bag at the airport and holding my ticket.

3. Books–can’t live without them. I’m currently reading To Kill A Mockingbird, by the way.

4. New magazines (Seventeen, Candy, Time, Newsweek and The Economist) and newspapers–I love the smell of the paper!

5. Sunshine-y but cool mornings–I love waking up to days like that especially that my bed is facing the window. =)

6. Music–I would go crazy without music!

7. My bed (covered in pastel-colored sheets)–I love staying in bed when I love the color of the sheets.

8. Sunrise and sunsets–who can say no to the fashion show that nature gives us?

9. Lazy Sundays–I don’t know if it’s just me or what but there is something about Sunday’s that I like. It could be that stillness…

10. Watching my favorite cartoons early in the morning while sipping a cup of coffee or hot chocolate–sadly, I don’t get to do this anymore. I have to wait for sembreak to do this again.

11. DEBATE–do I still need to explain this???

This is in connecton to my entry entitled “Jealousy”. This morning, I decided that i wanted to watch a movie and I chose The Prestige. It was a good movie and it reminded me of what I wrote.

Now I’m confused. Was it revenge or jealousy? Hmm…maybe it was revenge at first and it turned into jealousy.

Okay, let’s stick to that. =) Now, after the first revenge, it all became a game of who’s better when it comes to magic tricks. There lies my claim that jealousy can make us btter people. Better in our craft, I mean. Not better as a whole. I can say that it’s because of jealousy that Robert (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred (Christian Bale) became famous. But the bad thing about this was that it stuck to the true definition of jealousy. It eats you up until it destroys you which is what happened in the movie.

So, I take back what i said in the other entry. Jealousy has NO brightside. It kills you, nothing less, nothing more. I apologize for not explaining the movie well because it is a complicated one but if you want ot understand what I really mean, I recommend that you watch the movie for yourself (if you haven’t watched it already). It’s really mind-boggling (?) and you’ll love it. =)

An article from New York times entitled, “Forced To Take Major in High School”, I was shocked (I think that “shocked is an understatement here. I just can’t recall a better word at the moment). The first question that came to mind was how on earth can a high school freshman decide on a major?

In high school, I was looking into different career options. First, I wanted to be a pediatrician. The next year (after I got hooked on fashion magazines) I decided that I wanted to be a fashion designer and stuck to it for two years. After I realized that I couldn’t even draw a simple sketch of a gown, I gave up that dream and decided that I will take up Medical Technology (because “playing” with test tubes and microscopes looked cool). When I had Chemistry as a subject, I realized that Med. Tech. is not just about the test tubes and microscopes and slides. I hated memorizing the table of elements and computing and drawing chemical bonds and whatnot. So, I fell back to what my family wanted me to take up…Nursing. But after much thinking and research on the different career options out there, I decided that nursing is just not for me. I finally decided on Mass Communications when I got my test results from Silliman. I wrote Masscom as my third choice (by the way, I never considered taking up Masscom before). That was a long process of thinking and agonizing and visualizing my future job. Now imagine a high school freshman (probably aged around 11-14) deciding on what he/she wants to take up. That’s pure torture.

But at Dwight Morrow High School in Bergen County, high school freshmen are forced to think about what they want. It would take me about 20-30 minutes every morning to decide what to wear to school! What more a high school freshman making a decision as big as that.

“…establishing majors is a way to make their students stay interested until graduation and stand out in the hypercompetitive college admissions process.”

Making students stand out in the hypercompetitive college admissions process is not a bad goal at all. It’s just that high school is supposed to be a time for thinking things through and enjoying general education. It’s also a time for getting to know yourself better and trying out different versions of you before settling on a certain you that you want to be. Plus, we wouldn’t want high school freshmen experincing burnout in the hallowed walls of high school. Burnout is reserved for college students and professionals only.

But then, if we look at the bright side of this situation, it’s actually kind of cool. According to MItchell Stevens, an associate professor of education and sociology at New York University:

“This is like the middle-class version of what affluent families have been doing for years. They tailor academic instruction around the needs and desires of their children in order to encourage them to do well in school.”

It’s not a bad thing to aim for such. You’re simply giving the children a big responsibility early on. Sarcasm aside, I really do not approve of such a thing. Imagine if that was implemented here in the Philippines when I was a high school freshman, I would probably be a fashion designer at some arts school and I wouldn’t love what I’m doing because I realized that I just appreciate fashion. I don’t want to make them.

Hmm…midterms…OVER!!! yeeeey!!! So happy! =) Can’t wait to watch a movie for relaxing. Should it be 300? I’ll decide later. =)

I spent the whole night studying for Com21. Coffee overload, eye bags and all. Ugh. I hate the mirror.

With me cramming the whole night, what exactly happened during my Com exam? Uhh…let’s just say that I’m being my usual sleepy self again. I actually fell a asleep while taking the test!!! I need to see a doctor. Seriously. This is a disease that should be treated immediately. I almost skipped an item worth ten points!!! What was I thinking? I’m definitely crazy.

Thank goodness! The deadline for BC25 was moved. Instead of today, it’s next week! =) Zapphy and I were screaming and jumping up and down when I received Elysse’s text message. We were jumping like crazy and it was not a pretty sight.

Anyway, I just want to enjoy my weekend and Founders’. Karen and Elysse, lunch together ha?

Pangs of jealousy. I’m sure that that feeling is not alien to you. I’m sure that all of us have felt it, will feel it, and some of us are even dealing with it right now. It could be a book that you wanted to own and it so happens that your classmate has it. Or it could be the scholarship that you wanted to avail of so much but your goody-two shoes of a friend snapped it up first. Why is it always her? You can’t see why she has everything whereas you have nothing, you reason out. You feel like you’re just her sidekick and you want to have everything she has right now. But of course, you can’t. You’re tired of being second-best.

But that’s okay. In fact, it’s completely understandable. As girls, we get to experience these jealousy pangs more often than boys do. Yup, it’s an unfortunate fact. But before you hunt me down and beat me up for saying that, let me explain why.

No doubt, jealousy is the most destructive feeling I know. It eats you up from the inside and kills you softly. Maybe it’s because us girls tend to be too hard on ourselves. We always want the best. And guess what? IT’s already in our system.As girls, “perfection seems to be our main goal. As kids, we are bombarded by perfect Barbie dolls and beautiful princesses in fairy tales. We consume them and wish we were like them. Then we grow up and meet different kinds of people who are better than us at almost everything. The bubble that we have nurtured as little girls who believe in fairytales which, by the way, does not deal with two-timing prince charmings and girls who are better than the princess. That’s when our frustration comes in because our happy ending is not an easy road after all.

But if we look at the bright side of jealousy (yes, even something as evil as jealousy has a positive outcome),what do you think got us into where we are today? How did we improve? It’s because of, yup, you got that right, jealousy. Jealousy may be a nasty emotion but it developed out of real need.

According to Peter Salovey, Ph.D., a psychologist at Yale University: “Feeling jealous now and then, at manageable levels of intensity, is normal. To feel envious of someone means you’re plugged into life.”

But then again, there are people who allow themselves to be consumed by their jealousy that it turns into something petty.

We can’t make jealousy go away, especially in this world of artificial beauty where everything is enhanced. But the best thing you can do is to acknowledge your strengths but never put the other person down. That will only make you even more frustrated and it won’t do you any good.

I don’t hate blood. I just feel squirmish everytime I watch someone drawing out blood from someone else. That’s just so sick!!!

At Bio. lab taday, we had to perform this experiment using fresh blood and other solutions. Watching our teacher prick 4 of my classmates fingers and literally SQUEEZE OUT BLOOD FROM THEIR FINGERTIPS!!! That was sick! Argh!!!

I don’t know what’s happening to me. Maybe it’s because I’m not in a medical course. When my heart was set for a medical course (i wanted to be a pediatrician when I was 3 years old until elementary), I was so interested in those rpocedures. I would always tag along my mom everytime she’d go to the hospital she used to work in (she was a Medical Technologist) and she’d show me how to test someone’s blood type and what-not. I would even surf sites wherein they’d show gory images of people in accidents and it won’t mean anything to me.

Question of the day: what’s with blood that makes me feel squirmish now?