s-t-r-e-s-s = i-n-s-a-n-i-t-y

My other blog about the end of the year discussed the Herculean effort necessary to survive the rest of the year, but I believe it is fitting to now discuss how to even survive this week. Between prom being on Friday (and having planned it since last year), SATs approaching (again), finals and final projects, and everything else going on in life, it is almost impossible to remain breathing. At first I was reticent about this week, because I knew most people wouldn’t care if I had 40 problems for math homework, a 16-page packet for history, or thousands of papers to write. After writing one of my essays about spiders, I was transfixed to my computer, and realized how much I had to do in literally no time. It is tacitly stated that junior year is a killer, but it is impossible to understand that statement until you are truly living it. My predilection for ABC television on Thursday nights at 9:00 for Grey’s Anatomy has turned into Thursday nights starting at a notebook of cryptic and soporific formulas. I feel as if I have been beaten down so low that I don’t know how much resilience I even have left.

The pressure I have felt this year, although it may not seem like very much to a common person, is relatable to Iago’s character in Othello. Although Iago is not worrying about school, college applications, and finishing junior year alive, he is still forced to worry about his position as Othello’s “assistant,” and if there is any silver lining to his dim future. He feels bereft in his position to the august general; he is simply used to make Othello look and feel good. When Iago was a neophyte to Othello, he thought he would work with the general for a year or so, and then be promoted to captain (the position that Cassio holds). However, through all of the time that Iago has helped Othello, Othello is still blasé about his “second-hand.” The built up anger and stress that Iago has to deal with leads him to suborn Roderigo into a plot to go against Othello. The man whom Othello believed would always stand by him quickly turns into his nemesis Iago plans a way to split up Desdemona and Othello, and create Othello’s downfall out of his own pique for the man. The idea of simply killing Othello is hackneyed; Iago plans another route. He sets up many encounters between Desdemona and Cassio, the panache general, to make it seem as if they are having an affair. Iago then brilliantly talks to Othello about it, and by giving Othello bits of information each time, allows Othello to create the situation for himself, and then blow it completely out of proportion. Basically, stress drives people mad, (not technically in the case of school, although it does push students into panic-mode), and forces them to transgress past sanity and into danger.

desdemona

When I picture Desdemona, I think of a mixture of Rapunzel with her hair hanging down from the top of a forbidden tower, and Romeo and Juliet. I should probably eschew from using one work of Shakespeare to describe another, but it is necessary in this case. Her whirlwind romance with Othello lacked éclat; she basically fell in love with him because of his power as general of the Venetian army and because he was the opposite of the man her father wanted her to marry. Instead of paying homage to her father and marrying a man that he believed to be respectable, she married a man that her father did not revere at all. Even Roderigo believed that Desdemona was throwing away her duty to her father by marrying Othello, and that he is more of an animal than a person. This comment began her father’s splenetic outburst; a vendetta of which we are never informed of the ending. Brabantio went storming from door to door in search of his daughter, and picked up weapons and other people along the way just so he could publicly exculpate his own daughter!

end of the year!

It is amazing to think that in just a few weeks, junior year will be over, and I will be a senior. Even more bizarre is the fact that my sister will be a freshman next year. With all of this year’s college visits, my mom has become lugubrious about the fact that I will be leaving for college in a little over a year. Of course she is delighted about all that I have achieved this past year, but she does not know how to survive those years when I am away at school, and my sister is going through the bad teenage years. I advised her she could pay homage to my name by buying another dog, and naming it after me. This way, she could “speak” to me and hear my name around the house, even when I am not there. However, this could be a problem, since my sister, my dog, and I all have names with homogenous sounds. Even now, she mixes up our names: Kimberly, Carly, and Coko.

Although it seems like the year has begun to wind down, it is really just the beginning of the hectic weeks ahead. The idea of resting after school and relaxing on the weekends is an ostensible thought. My days have turned into waking up, coming into school early, working all day, coming home, working all night, going to bed late, and starting the cycle over again the next morning. This routine debilitates me, considering I am the person who would go to bed at 8:00 every night if it were possible. The only thing that keeps me running every day is the count on my iCal. Counting down the days until my birthday, prom, and my license (which coincidentally all occur the same weekend). The issue with counting down to these days is that prom always creates problems. Whether someone feels ostracized from the table, there is a dispute for where to take pictures, or the talk about dates, this time is always filled with the malevolent and enjoyable incidences.

iago and othello's relationship

I knew that Othello was going to be the character that made readers irritated right from the beginning. On the first page of the play, it states how he claimed he wasn’t using nepotism when he chose Michael Cassio for Lieutenant, instead of Iago. In today’s world, Othello would be compared to that kid who uses all of his friends when he needs them to spy and find out secret information, but really has no desire to help

them in return. This is exactly how Othello treats Iago. Othello thinks that Iago enjoys being his personal assistant, but really, working for Othello for so many years has caused him to feel enervated. It bothers me that Othello’s expedient strategy is to keep Iago as his assistant because it works for him. However, I am still not sure if he knows that Iago actually hates working for him. I think Iago has a scintilla of hope for his future, which is why he remains by Othello’s side. However, that must be some Lilliputian hope, because that future of his does not look very bright.

Kyleigh’s Law

May 1, 2010 commences the start of Kyleigh’s Law. This outrage has brought argument and anger to high school students everywhere. When the gym teachers first posted the news article on the gym wall, students harassed the teachers about what this law meant for us, and how it could be passed in Congress. Although Corzine and the other senators who voted to pass the law think it will be more effective, they clearly do not have young daughters driving, because then they would recognize the pernicious effects. For a teenage girl to drive around with a red sticker on their license plate that profiles them as a new driver and an underage person is jeopardizing their safety. They may as well have us walk around with a label on our foreheads that says, “Attention pedophiles, I am a young girl driving alone in my car.” Even though the law went into effect on Saturday, the stickers still are not ubiquitous. As a girl who gets her license in less than a month, I feel as if the safety of my suburban milieu has suddenly been obliterated.

Although it seems like us teens are the only ones dissatisfied with this new law, our parents are also concerned about the consequences of the red sticker. It is certain that Congress needs to hold another symposium and discuss this matter in further depth. I do sympathize with the family of Kyleigh who has to suffer with her loss daily. However, I do not believe that this strict law should be the consequence of one girl’s actions. Even if the curfew was 11:00 P.M., I would accept that as the law. But, I cannot accept the fact that my safety is in peril every time I drive my car.

"be the change you wish to see in the world"

This past week, I attended a community service trip to Atlanta, Georgia, through the National Student Leadership Conference. Over the summer, I went to the NSLC Mastering Leadership Conference, and fell in love with the program. At first, I was cynical about attending a summer program at the University of Maryland with no one that I knew, and no idea what the program even consisted of. However, I tried my best not to disparage the program before it started. After having an amazing six days at the Mastering Leadership Conference, I made the decision to fly to Atlanta in February and participate in an alumni service trip. Little did I know that this trip would change my entire outlook on life, community service, and my peers. My mom acted as the liaison between myself and the NSLC office, and made sure that all of the plans were settled before my plane took off. Thank goodness the office prescribed that I bring warm clothing, because on the second day, it snowed in Atlanta for the first time in TEN YEARS! I must have brought the snow with me from New Jersey!
Anyhow, when I arrived at the Atlanta airport, I was greeted by my vivacious team advisor from the summer, Alex, whose zest and exuberance made my NSLC experience even more worthwhile. After seeing Alex, I knew the next five days would be life-changing. We had to wait at the airport until the majority of the students arrived, because the lodge was an hour away from the airport, and we were all taking the same shuttle. At first I disliked the idea of sitting at the airport for five hours, but once the other students began to arrive, I felt myself become ebullient, and my fear was immediately eradicated.
The next day, we started the community service work. We traveled an hour by bus to a church-owned orphanage for kids ages 18-21. The orphanage acted as a place where these young adults could learn to live on their own in apartment-style rooms, so they would be prepared to live on their own once they turned 22. There were three jobs to be completed between the 25 of us: insulate all of the pipes in the house, insulate all of the walls, and put up drywall sheetrock. At first, I walked into the house and was full of doubt, because the only work that had been done was the skeletal wood framing of the rooms. Amazingly, after only 3 short days, all of the insulation was finished in the house, all of the pipes were insulated, and most of the drywall was up. It was unbelievable that students could achieve an accomplishment that immense. We learned that between the 25 of us, we had completely 2,000 combined hours of work in only three days; work that would have taken one man over 3 months to complete on his own. Even though the trip is now over, my involvement in community service has only began, and I will be counting down the days until the Advanced Leadership conference this coming summer!

grey's anatomy

As many probably already know, Grey’s Anatomy has been my favorite television show since it first aired in 2005. The show follows the life of Meredith Grey, and her friends Cristina Yang, Izzie Stevens, Alex Karev, George O’Malley, and her love interest Derek Shepherd through the trials and tribulations of being a doctor at Seattle Grace Hospital. Cristina Yang is the laconic character; her main focus is succeeding and becoming the best surgeon Seattle has ever seen. She and Meredith are both in relationships with their surgeon residents, which many of the other doctors believe to be their way of cajoling the authorities for better surgeries than the rest of the other interns. Now in its sixth season, Grey’s Anatomy has taken a different route for the theme of the episodes. Instead of following the usual storyline of love, relationships, drama, prestige, and medicine, the creator, Shonda Rhimes decided to write flashback episodes. The first flashback episode occurred last week, and starred the stoic Ellis Grey (the late mother of Meredith) and the Chief of Surgery Webber as younger doctors in the 80’s at Seattle Grace. At this time, Drs. Webber and Grey were faced with a case that many scrupled to find a cure. The sickly man was diagnosed with AIDS, which in the 80’s was unheard of and thought to be despicable because people believed it could only be transmitted through the gay population. This episode was so powerful because it portrayed how the majority of America looked down upon the gay community, and really resented its existence.
The relationship between characters Meredith and Derek, (played by heartthrob Patrick Dempsey and Ellen Pompeo) is one of the main reasons for my attachment and obsession with the show. Grey’s to me is like any comestible to a starving person; I am always in the mood to watch it and can never get sick of it! Derek and Meredith have overcome many battles since the first season, such as the arrival of Derek’s wife, who immediately ruined the quixotic relationship forming between the two. Not only have other characters split the characters apart, but also often times Meredith’s isolationist and reclusive demeanor shut out Derek’s suave manner. However, now that the show has reached its sixth season, Meredith and Derek have overcome almost every obstacle put in their way, and Derek’s sangfroid has begun to rub off onto the emotionally disturbed Meredith. Her “dark and twisty” times of keeping her feelings bottled up are over, now that Derek’s cool composure can break through the walls she builds around herself.
Furthermore, a show full of impressive doctors, heart-wrenching surgeries, and tear-jerking drama, what else could anyone be looking for?