Category: BlockTwo

Here’s to the “dumb” kids who could never get above a C. They are the children society has tossed to the side as it embraces strait A’s. With each passing report card, parents yell, and the kids yell back. Here’s to the kids who try every time, but the same red ink beams into their eyeballs. Here’s to the kids who realized that trying yields the same result as procrastination, and so stopped the process early on.

Here’s to the “dumb” kids who throw pencils into ceilings instead of planting them in paper. Here’s to the kids who show up late to class with coffee in one hand and phone in the other. Here’s to the kids who giggle in the back chairs, stuffing laughter down their throats when teachers call their names. Here’s to the kids who spend weekends at each other’s houses instead of buried in books. Here’s to the kids who make plans instead of planners, and scheduale time around friends instead of quizzes. Here’s to the kids who climb out of their bedroom windows, feet dangling in the chill of the night, gazing at the moonlit yard beneath them. Here’s to the kids who stay up way too late and sleep in class. Here’s to the kids who speed down highways, with fear and adrenaline and pure joy in their veins. Here’s to the kids who date and break up and date and break up again, regretting it every time. Here’s to the kids who get in trouble and grin with memory in detentions. Here’s to the kids who have sleepovers and eat too much candy and share too much gossip. Here’s to the kids who go to parties and dance at them, too. Here’s to the kids in their cliques, who know themselves but not the outside world. Here’s to the kids who avoid working but find their passions in the process, who dream, who break their own hearts, who rebuild, who neglect the future but experience the present. Here’s to the kids who were never taught that they had more to offer than letter grades and high GPAs. Here’s to the kids who wish they were “smart.”

Here’s to the “dumb” kids whos’ eyes will soften and crack with wisdom. Here’s to the kids who will someday have little eyes gaze up at them as they rest their weary backs on weathered couches. Here’s to the kids whose shoulders will shake with each chuckle as they remember that time when good ol’ Paul or Joe or Sam got themselves in real big trouble with the principle. Here’s to the kids who will tell stories. Here’s to the kids who will wonder how each other are doing. Here’s to the kids who still call sometimes.

Here’s to the dumb kids. May you never forget what we have failed to learn.

   Have you ever been affected by a random act of kindness? Whether it was from an important person in your life, an acquaintance, a stranger, or an anonymous source, it made you feel good.  All warm and fuzzy, right? That person changed your life for the better, whether it was in a big way, or a small way.  What about when you perform a random act of kindness?  Doesn’t it also bring joy to you?  In order to make the world a better place, everyone needs to work to make each day for one another a little bit brighter.

Kindness is recurring, so when one human sends kindness, love, and compassion out into the Universe, those wonderful feelings will come back around to that same person.  By practicing random acts of kindness, we teach ourselves to recognize them and we are lifted to a more genuine level– a level in which we are more open to recieving these feelings.

By practicing a random act of kindness, a person has the power to improve someone’s life, lift their spirits higher than they thought was possible, or put a smile on their face, or even alter their whole way of thinking.  Whether the act of kindness one performs is as small as picking up a pen off of the ground and handing it to the person who dropped it, or as big as buying someone a house, the person being affected by the random act’s life will be changed for the better. no matter what their life is like before.

Who said that the practitioner of the random act of kindness won’t reap as much happiness as the receiver?  Nobody did.  Although one should not ever practice a random act of kindness to purely benefit themself, they will be benefited.  After performing an act of kindness, a person will never feel badly or deservingly be negatively sanctioned.  Instead, the practioner will feel happiness, bliss, and an overwhelming amount of joy when they realize how they just altered the path that someone is walking through life for the better.

Practice random acts of kindness as small as picking up litter to make the environment around us cleaner, planting a flower to make life a bit more beautiful , cracking a joke to make another laugh, or calling your grandparents to let them know how much you care.  Through these random acts of kindness, the love, compassion, and kindness that is sent out into the Universe will help to make the world a better place.

– Isabella Dube

I am not the same person I was a year ago, or a month ago, or a week ago, or yesterday. I morph constantly, shedding the skin of old demeanors. I am not a better person than I was, nor am I a worse person. I am just a person.

Does this happen to everyone? Or is this just a symptom of my youth? Do adults feel the same? Is it fickleness to change one’s beliefs, or an evolution of logic? I am changing ideas, opinions, and personality. Or maybe I am not changing at all. Maybe I have constructed a self-inflicted illusion to help me cope with what I do not know.

As a child, my thoughts were very simple. My goal was to gain happiness as quickly as possible. With a brain like a cardboard puzzle, I pieced together simple pathways of thought. Want to play? Get a toy. Want to move? Go outside. Hungry? Eat. Upset? Cry.

At my age, I can now construct ideas my tiny child mind could not have begun to comprehend. I can understand religion, politics, and relationships. I can challenge the fundamental fountains of moral code. I can pick apart logical pathways. I can understand the point of view of other human beings, without having ever experienced life as them before. I have new emotions that I never experienced as a child,

But this is the same for everyone. Why do we change so dramatically? Why could not we have all stayed as simple as the animals? I like to believe that it is because each human is a complete work of art; they are a tapestry of perfection and flaws, mood and logic, hope and hopelessness, love and hate. Each human is a unique, special, beautiful masterpiece unseen before in all of history. No two people are alike.

But, even as this is, we are not so simple. This is why we change—we are not stagnant like paintings, but transforming artworks. We are nebulas, exploding constantly, expanding, changing hues, all to become one beautiful creation. My advice is to embrace the change, and to continue to love getting older; you are adding more to your beauty.

 When you try to think of some the most dangerous sports in the world, you will probably think about serious injuries in full contact sports.  Football and basketball may be the sports most likely to comen to mind, but try thinking about cheering, a difficult and dangerous sport.  It is easy to see how dangerous of a sport cheering can be.   In a two and a half minute routine, cheerleaders exhibit their flexibility, tumbling and stunting skills, jumps, dancing ability, strength, and endurance.  Compared to other sports, cheering actually has a low overall number of injuries.  However, over half of all catastrophic injuries in females resulted from cheering because in this sport, injuries are often more severe.

Injurise caused by cheering can affect any part of the body.  Wrists, shoulders, ankles, head, and neck are the most commonly injured areas.  Sprains, which are the cause of more than half of all cheering injuries, can also occur in the knees, wrists, neck and back, another commonly injured place.  In cheering, concussions are becoming a more and more common injury.  As more evidence about the damage of these head injuries such as concussions can cause is found, awareness of cheering related injuries are heightened.  For example, I have suffered from a concussion in fifth, seventh, and tenth grade.  Now, my parents decided to purchase a stiff headband that absorbs up to eighty percent of the impact my head is hit with in an effort to protect my brain.  Sadly, I have yet to meet another cheerleader who took such precautions to protect her brain too.

The majority of cheering injuries are caused by a lack of training, practice with stunting, conditioning, and protective gear.  In order to be a successful athlete in the cheer world, you must not lack these things.  Ninety-six percent of all concussions and head injuries in cheering are caused by stunting.  Restrictions have been put in place that specify skill levels, and safety rules such as to always practice stunts on cheer mats, because cheering is one of the only sports where athletes are more likely to get injured at practice then in competition.  Also, not many people view cheering as a sport and understand how dangerous it can be.  Therefore, without much thought, inexperienced and unqualified people are put in the position to coach a cheer team.  At a minimum, a cheering coach should know proper stunting and tumbling technique, should always heavily be supervising practice, and should be able to identify the symptoms of serious injuries such as a concussion.  Lastly, cheerleading is not viewed as a sport that athletes need to train for, but stretching in yoga or Pilates can help to loosen muscles and prevent strains, pulls, and sprains.  Strength training and conditioning can help to prepare muscles to lift a large amount of wait, for example, your teammate’s body.

In conclusion, people should become more educated on the sport of cheer and the safety of the athletes participating in this sport should be handled more carefully.