My Type of Humor

  
            Let’s put it this way, I speak fluently in sarcasm and in every non-serious way possible. I basically speak in joke. To my friends, I’m the funny one, or the jokester. If you need cheering up, I’m the one to go to. I’m not much of a person to be serious or get mad at my friends or other people. I don’t really enjoy serious conversations because let’s face it; life is no fun when you’re too serious. Laugh a little, or in my case, a lot. 
            I tend to use sarcasm a lot in daily discussion or conversation, especially with my friends and family. My friends understand my sarcasm which makes it funny or almost normal and they get used to it, but it’s the people that don’t understand it that get me in trouble. It's a problem when I use sarcasm with people, and they don’t understand it, but take it the wrong way. When I'm around people I don't know closely I tend to have to reinforce that it is merely sarcasm, or a joke.
            Honestly, I think that I get my sarcasm and somewhat dry humor from my family. Being around my family is like being in the middle of a comic act. My mom, especially, is just like me and we are pretty much a ruckus when we're together, constantly cracking jokes. My family- including aunts, uncles, and cousins is very big, but the majority of them are the same as me. We get together for holidays and have a blast. Let's just say if you can't take a joke, you will be eaten alive in my family.

Cause and Effect: Lying

                Lying. We all do it. But nowadays it’s becoming such a common thing that it isn’t seen as a big deal anymore. Many people come to be “natural liars” where without even thinking about it, they just lie while in casual conversation. Whether about something big, like that you aren’t really a woman, or something small, like “I’m on my way”, when you haven’t even left your house yet. However you choose to lie, it all ends up as a domino effect and can snowball into something big.

                Let’s create a scenario. Say you meet a new person, Sam, and decide to give them a fake number as a harmless joke. You tell them your name is Kim Smith, and your number is 555-1255, knowing the whole time that it is a fake number. You go home that night not thinking a thing of it and completely erasing this event from your memory. Meanwhile, Sam calls you that night- or, the number he thought was you. 555-1255, let’s say is a sex offender named Joe. Sam asks for Kim Smith, and Joe replies by saying, you have the wrong number.
               After hanging up the phone Joe then thinks, hmmmm.... who is this Kim Smith? And proceeds to look you up on facebook, where he finds your phone number, and address. Joe selects you as his new victim. Clearly your little fib, meant as a harmless prank, has turned into something much more than you were expecting.
             Yes, of course everyone lies and there are also times where lying is necessary. But no one seems to think twice about lying, and the effects that it may have on both yourself, and others.

Snow Days

          Snow days, everybody loves them. But I think we need to take a step back and think about when we do and do not need snow days/two-hour delays. First of all, yes we need to be in school as much as possible regardless of weather, but when the weather conditions are bad making the roads hazardous there is a problem. And with young and inexperienced teenage drivers, these hazardous roads are even more risky. Of course every time a snowflake drops it is not necessary to cancel school, adding yet another makeup snow day to the end of the school year, but that’s why we have the alternative two-hour delay for conditions that could be hazardous on the morning commute to school.
          Typically I feel that we have snow days when we do not need them, and don't have two-hour delays when we do need them. Although it may be frowned upon because we live in Iowa, and should know what to expect during the Winter, I think that for sure the first decent sized snowfall of the Winter season should be a two-hour delay. The majority of Kennedy students have been driving in these conditions to school since they were either a Freshman or Sophomore, so should know how to handle this. But we need to take into perspective the younger students driving in snowy conditions for maybe the first time ever. There is of course the option of not driving to school and having a parent or adult drop you off at school, but not all students have that luxury and we need to think about stepping in the shoes of these students too.
           On days where we unfortunately cannot accomodate every student and have a delay or snow day with harzardous driving conditions, typically it causes many students to be late for school. Living in Iowa, drivers know that they must slow down to prevent accidents, and this can potentially double your traveling time depending on the intensity of the storm. I love that most of our teachers and administration are understanding of this and that they try their best to ensure that students can get into class even if a few minutes late to class due to driving conditions.

Long Car Rides

        Nowadays it is anything but uncommon to go on long car trips. These trips may vary in time depending on how often you travel long distance. Some may consider 30 minutes a long trip, while others may consider 2 hours a short, average trip. Another thing that may effect your view on long trips is your age, and whether or not you are driving.
        Personally I don't mind long car rides because I frequently am taking hour long drives, 4 times a week to Iowa City. These trips I typically go on alone and am driving. Because this is a short trip and I have become used to it, I have started to actually enjoy these car rides. I kind of find it as sort of a time for personal meditation. You can choose whether to have the music on and jam out, singing at the top of your lungs (no matter how bad it sounds), or driving on silence just to reflect on things by yourself. I can listen to my own music and blast it until my ears bleed and no one will judge. I also tend to stock up on food before my Iowa City car rides and eat basically the whole trip there and back for the fun of it, again, no one can judge you.
        The other way to go on a long trip is when you aren't driving. And again there are multiple ways this can happen, the first way might be riding in the car with a friend. These are the times when you are obligated to talk talk talk talk with your friend because of course you can't ignore the person driving you, or fall asleep. My favorite way to go on a long trip is with my whole family. We drive a Suburban, so I get dibs on the farthest back seat and stretch out and sleep pretty much the whole ride, or watch a movie with siblings. It's also different, though, when you are driving with only one parent. I go on more trips with just my mom than I do with my whole family. These are the trips that you are somewhat obligated to stay awake the majority of the ride, because I start to feel guilty leaving my mom driving alone.
        

How to: Be BFF's

            So you say you want a BFF? Here’s the real definition of best friends and what you must do to have a successful “Best Friendship”.

·         Break down walls: To be BFF’s you must not hide anything. Best friends are best friends for a reason, because you can be exactly who you are around them and not care what they think, because they will accept you as you are, and love you for it. If you are too embarrassed to show your true colors around someone because you are afraid of being judged, then that person cannot and should not be your best friend. (For example: sharing the ugliest pictures that you could possibly find with that friend and laughing about it.)

·         Flaunt your flaws: A best friend is someone who finds out the worst things about you, and uses those as the reasons to be friends with you. Your flaws are what make you YOU, so work it girl.

·         Find common grounds: Having something in common is what makes you friends, typically if you have nothing in common with someone, your relationship will not work out. The way you know you have a best friend is if you have the most random things in common, such as the things you wouldn’t tell anybody, and when you finally tell that one person- they do that exact unique thing that you do.

·         Secret code: In addition to having common grounds, you must also be able to understand your BFF when no one else does. That one look, word, or symbol that you and your partner in crime have that no one else would know, but it makes complete sense to you and ties you together with a “secret code”.

·         Honesty and Trust: The main component of a best friendship. With any relationship it is impossible to be successful if you aren’t loyal and most important, trustworthy. If you cannot be loyal, or honest with someone- which means speaking your mind- and in addition you cannot trust someone to do the same, then you cannot be best friends.

This may not be the only way to be best friends, but it’s for sure the right way, and anyone without these basic qualities will never be considered “BFF’s”.

School Sports vs. Club Sports

            Many people that do not participate in outside of school sports or club sports do not understand the time commitment that is put into these extracurricular activities. Not only are there school night practices that may go late, but also weekend tournaments that can cause you to miss school days occasionally. With school activities, the majority of practices and activities are on school days usually right after school, and don’t typically run late.

            Not only is there a big time commitment, but also the overall commitment of each player varies from school sports to club sports. Club sports are optional, and require tryouts or invitation to be on the team. This makes the teams very exclusive, only with kids that are truly committed to the sport. On the other hand there are school sports, where everyone must be accepted one way or another, which usually causes teams to end up with uncommitted people who are just on the team for a waiver out of gym.

            Coaching controls a lot of things between school and club sports. Club coaches are typically not paid, but are volunteering their time to do what they love to do, and most likely have been training and wishing to do for most of their lives. Club coaches take the sport very seriously. Not to bash on school coaches and say they do not, but usually school coaches are teachers that are asked to coach by the athletic director because they have experience with the sport. These coaches use coaching as an extracurricular type thing, or a side job.

            The coaching style usually affects the intensity of play amongst each team. Club sports are very intense all the time and taken very seriously because they can affect a lot of things for each player, such as where they go to college. Club teams are usually assembled to make a trip to Nationals or some big tournament, and get kids on their way to collegiate level sports. School sports are an alternative for many people that want to get exercise or just stay active while having fun, not all people are aspiring college athletes, which brings down the intensity to some extent.

            To me, and many other people, the best part about sports is the lifelong relationships that come from them. Club sports especially can make you the best friends you will ever have due to all you have to go through together to reach the common goal you may have. Not only with the players on your team but also relationships between oneself and your coach. School sports are usually played with a lot of people you don’t know or aren’t close with, and maybe a few close school friends.