17: What I Know Thus Far

Today is May 30th. My lovely birthday, and also the birthday of the Brooklyn Bridge and Cee-Lo Green. Yesterday was JFK's b-day, tomorrow happens to be Brooke Shields' b-day too. (If only I looked like the 17-year-old version of her...)

Historically speaking and in the big picture, 17 doesn't sound like a lot. But I feel straight up old. In 3 years, I'll be TWENTY. To me, that's just weird.

Anyway, here's just a couple of life lessons I've learned in my short 17 years here on Planet Earth. Most likely you've experienced the same things I have... but whatevs.

• Work Ethic Matters...

My scholastic discipline started young... when I was four I was sitting in a desk with a full-on uniform on and writing sentences in little-kid cursive, (preschools in the Philippines are way different than in the US) and I was that total geek in elementary/middle school that did ALL my homework on Friday night. My mom would do multiplication drills with me every night, and the harder I worked, the more good results I would see. I learned that you can contribute to your successes immensely if you worked hard and didn't give up at the first sign of difficulty.

• ...but kinda-sorta-not-really

The bad part about starting my work ethic super young? I started developing a work-a-holic-control-freak-like view on life in general. It kind of hit me hard in high school when I realized that there are somethings in life that don't go your way - no matter how hard you work, no matter how many hours you put in, no matter how many cups of coffee you drank to get it done. I had to learn (primarily last year and this year) that life isn't always "fair." Just because I had worked my 100% didn't mean I was going to get News Director or a Producer spot for my schools news program. It was a very bitter pill for me to swallow, but lessoned learned.

• Surround Yourself With Good

Good people. Good teachers. Good-tasting food. Good-feeling activities. I learned that in life, there's no room for negative stuff or "energy-suckers" as my dad likes to call them. Everything in life should have a positive influence/benefit on you and your vibes. I can be really really pessimistic at times, so daily positive reminders and surrounding myself with things that make me happy has made life a bit more enjoyable. :)

• Passion and Learning

I really love learning stuff.  I love learning stuff I'm passionate about even more. So it's no surprise that I'm pretty much beyond stoked when I walk into a seminar at a journalism convention (NSPA/JEA BOSTON 2013 hell yeah). My point is that in life, I've learned that you need to learn A LOT. Be a sponge, absorb everything around you. Be an eternal student. Learning doesn't stop when you leave campus, it's everywhere. Learning things is how you find passion, and passion leads to more learning, and learning leads to more passion... etc.

• Confidence Comes From Within

Admittedly, this is something I really struggle with today. Confidence and self-esteem can't come from the outside. It can't come from other people, it can't come from awards or GPA, it can't come from pictures or the mirror or the scale. It has to come from the inside. Does it hurt to be flat out rejected? Yes. Does it suck that no one asked me to prom this year? Yes. Does it suck that I don't have a 4.0 GPA? Yeah. Does it really stink that I have epilepsy? YES. But I can't feel sorry for myself. I have to be totally ok with who I am and who I've become in order to make any progress for the future. I have to stand with my decisions and actions, and keep my chin up. This is hard for me, but it must be done.

I think my life has been pretty rad so far. Can't wait to see what comes next! :)

The Right, and the SUPER Right...

So, this happened on Twitter today...

Oy Vey...

This, unfortunately, is how A LOT of people see the GOP today. Islamophobes, homophobes, the Westboro-Baptist-Church-kind-of illogical, ideological, old white guys who have VERY backward ideas about US society and foreign policy. These are the kind of people who give the GOP a bad rap, and you know what? I'm sick and tired of it.

Our nation, the United States of America, was pretty much partly founded on the search for religious freedom. And while the Puritans and Pilgrims didn't practice tolerance, the Quakers in Philadelphia did. Colonial Philadelphia soon became known as the "Best Poor Man's Country." You know what that means? Brimming opportunity for ALL (including immigrants w/ different creeds) white (it was colonial times....) men. 

We are a SECULAR nation. I really do appreciate those who want to protect our country from Jihad-ists. I really do. But assuming that all Muslims are extremists? Assuming that non-extremists Muslims who don't take significant action to denounce extremism are "enabling" extremists? That's straight-up Islamophobia.

Not all Muslims are extremists! And clearly, not all extremists are Muslims.

I appreciate your voice and your opinion, but I would like to politely disagree with your aggressiveness against a certain religion you are generalizing into a LUMP. The Super Right, a slim minority (that means well), is now the publicized face of the GOP, giving the rest of us a BAD RAP TO PUT UP WITH 24/7. For Pete's Sake! Not all the GOP is the same.

Oh, and that "respect for both sides of the aisle" thing I was talking about? It goes both ways for Dems and Repubs.

LIBGINAS? Really? Last time I checked, respect was a two-way street... #NoHope

So, I guess I've seen the darker side of the Republican Party, and I've seen that both parties can be absolute, nonsensical nutheads...

Welcome to politics, I guess.

The F-Word: Feminism

This was posted at a high school after new dress code was enforced.
YOU GO GLEN COCO.

Anyone noticed the new spring of Feminism sweeping young women (and even some very brave and cool young men) across the nation? Thanks to tumblr and other social media sites, I think "feminism" and efforts against the rape culture have become "cool" again.

One problem. I'm a Conservative Republican.

A couple months ago, one of my friends in my English class said,

"Julia, I could totally imagine you being a feminist."

Automatically, I cringed. Physically cringed at the very word being uttered to describe ME. Born and raised Republican, I was taught that feminists = bad. When my friend said that, pictures of lesbians eating tofu and braiding their armpit hair flashed in my head. Naturally, I responded that I was sort-of-ish a feminist-ish. I immediately wanted to disassociate myself from that term.

But then, I kind of thought about it. I read articles regarding other public schools being super sexist regarding their dress code because they don't want it to be "distracting" to the boys in an educational environment. (I mean, you're not going to allow me to wear MY BELOVED LULULEMON PANTS?? How about NO.) I read things going on in the country, like girls getting raped while they were passed out drunk, and the boy's defense was that, "She didn't say no." Those same girls who got raped then were humiliated via the internet, and then some resorted to suicide.

It's NOT ok for schools to restrict girls from wearing shorts on a hot day just because it shows our legs, yoga pants just because it makes our butts look pretty great, or even v-necks just because it shows more of our chest area then crew necks do. It's NOT ok for girls to cater OUR clothing choices and OUR behavior to teenage boys who can't control themselves.

Here's a really nice alternative: Teach teen boys how to be men. Teach them how to respect a woman's body like it should be respected. Teach them to be mature. This is the future of the nation we are talking about, let's get serious about this issue.

Now, I'm not totally off the deep-end. I'm no Sandra Fluke. I don't think contraceptives are a government responsibility. But I do think that women should be equal to men in every legal and social regard. No double standards should be tolerated in this day in age.

I'm a girl who doesn't wear skirts or dresses often. I think that pants are extremely comfortable, and dresses are lovely for special occasions. I love primping pre-night out, but often times I'll throw my hair up in a pony tail and rush to my 7:00 AM class. Does that make me any less feminine? Any less desirable? No. That just makes me a modern woman.

So, I'm feminist-ish, and I guess I'm proud of it.

APs Everywhere

Advanced Placement Stress (oh APUSH...)

Dear Associated Press, YOU RULE.

May seems like a very AP-ish month, considering I had my AP US History test recently (I thought I did alright, for those who care) and the whole AP/Obama Administration scandal.

For those of you who don't really know what's up, Associated Press is currently under some serious crackdown or a "sweeping records seizure" from the Dept. of Justice, more specifically, 2-months worth of phone records from 20 phone lines in 4 different locations due to the reporting of super-sensitive material regarding a CIA mission in Yemen.

Apparently, the reporting of these deets and speaking to someone on the inside about the specifics (a leak) was a big national security threat. The CEO of AP, Gary Pruitt, went on Face the Nation and said that this action was unconstitutional, and sets a really dangerous precedent for the future of the press.

Mr. Pruitt, I whole-heartedly commend your strong stance on this issue. I think that's it definitely, utterly, completely, NOT OK for the government to do this. Freedom of speech is what we journalists pretty much live on, its our duty to the nation to report what's going on.

I thought that Sen. John Cornyn's (TX, R) remarks were smart and absolutely in the right. He stated that the government shouldn't get ticked off at the journalists (who are just doing their JOBS), but rather focus their energies on the leaks within government itself (where they actually have the power to do something). He also stated, "What confuses me is the focus on the press, who have a constitutional right here and we depend on the press to get to the bottom of so many issues that we, as individuals, cannot."

Bottom line is that this crap against the press it NOT OK. So, DOJ, please back off and watch what you do. I don't know if we've made it clear enough, but the journalists of this nation are NOT going to deal with your crud without a fight. Same with you ETS/College Board. If I don't get a good score... I will throw a hissy-fit. :)

-Julia

Hello!

My name is Julia. I'm 16 going on 17, an aspiring journalist (more specifically, broadcast journalism), a part of my high school's (straight-up awesome) Model UN team, former varsity cheerleader, and a proud representative of epilepsy (Yes, I do have epilepsy. I had to quit cheer because of it, so yes, it does kind of suck).

But more importantly: I'm a republican-leaning teen, living in Los Angeles, raised in a VERY conservative home, and surrounded by an increasing number of liberals, socialists, centrists, etc.

So, I guess this blog is to chronicle my discoveries and journey towards my own political opinion, and the truth. It's hard to find the truth when your mom and dad tells you one thing, and your teachers and friends tell you something completely different. Then add the media, internet, and the bucketloads of (baloney) info that politicians on both sides pour on the public, and pretty soon the quest for truth and realness just leads to more confusion. Who should I listen to? Who should I question? Who can I trust? How much do these factors really influence my decisions and my voice?

I believe that I'm economically conservative, but socially moderate. I'm a fan of Reaganomics and the Laffer Curve, but I support gay marriage and Roe v. Wade (which my parents are not very happy about). I believe that people on Capitol Hill need to go back to the roots of our nation and actually make compromises (like Henry Clay) to at least get something done. I believe that we live in a hopelessly partisan society, both sides not even caring to hear the other, producing narrow-minded idiots on a power-trip that like to babble and lie. I believe that liberals and Tea Party conservatives both should have an equal voice and be equally respected. I believe the truth has been lost, I'm just trying to find it.

- Julia