Stress Reliever

Being that age just between a kid and a teenager, it’s inevitable that you’re going to have to deal with stress. Trust me, I know from experience. The most common causes of stress are deadlines, being very busy, school, relationship difficulties, and major life changes. I’m pretty sure everyone deals with these complications every day. I know I do. These issues are called stressors. A stressor that I deal with a lot is homework. When I don’t get it done on time or wait until the last minute to do it, I end up causing way too much stress for myself. I’m pretty sure most of you have had to cope with this same situation. There are actually many ways to avoid this problem. Most of which are easy.

To stay away from stressors, you have to learn to prevent the problem from happening. The example I used before is a great way to show how to cease the problem. Say you have a huge project due but you don’t feel like doing it, so you put it off. Finally there’s only one day left to finish the project. What are you going to do? Now you have to stay up all night working on it. Does this dilemma sound familiar to you? Well, I have the secret on how to avoid this. All you have to do is start the project right when it’s assigned! It’s really not as hard as it sounds. Once you finish it way before it’s due, you’ll save yourself the stress, and you’ll have just as much free time as you would’ve had putting the project off. So, there you have it. Now you’re life won’t be so full of worries anymore!

~Isabel Peck

Popularity vs. Education: The Choices Teens Make

As teenagers, we all want to be loved.  We all want to be popular, have the most friends, the best looks, and to be envied.  Some people think that education is a small price to pay to gain adoration from their classmates.  But is it really worth it?  It is common for the really smart kids to have a pretty low status in school.  This is probably because the studious ones spend all their time studying and working, and they never miss homework assignments.  They get everything done on time, they never do homework on the bus, and they join academic clubs…which means they don’t have time to hang out with friends and work at their social life.  Believe me, I know.  On the other hand, the kids who spend all their time hanging out with their friends often skip homework, show up late to classes, and get bad grades.  Other than the grades, they’re usually pretty happy.  In the future though, I doubt they’re going to be as happy.  They probably won’t be able to have the job they want, or afford the luxuries they crave.  And the smart kids? The good students?  It will be so much easier for them to get what they want from life, a nice house, a stable and enjoyable job, a shiny new car, whatever it may be.  So what’s better: being happy now or happy later?  Being popular or being smart?

Well I think that we should be happy later.  “Later” is the majority of our life.  In the end, nobody cares about whether or not you were popular.  The whole idea of popularity is actually pretty stupid.  Nobody is better than someone else.  How can we even judge if everyone is different?  It’s the comparison of apples and oranges.  The smart kids?  We’ll be successful in life, no matter how nerdy we are in school.  The popular kids?  They’ll end up with fewer choices than the rest of us.  Our education takes up a small part of our life; the big picture is our future, our career.  An education can take you places that popularity never can.  In some countries, parents are sacrificing everything to give their kids an education.  We take it for granted, and some throw it away so they can be admired by their classmates.  This is just wrong?  So be smart. Work hard today, because you’ll have a brighter tomorrow.

~Julia Torok

Death of a Great Man

As many people already know, Steve Jobs died October 5, 2011. This blog is to commemorate his accomplishments. Steve lived a very long and successful life as the CEO of Apple Inc. and Pixar Animation Studios. He revolutionized the way we think about technology by bringing us the iPod, iPhone, iPad and Macintosh. In 1974, he became a video game designer for Atari. In 1976, he and his partner Wozniak created one of the first successful personal computers, the Apple II. In the early 1980s, Jobs revolutionized computers with the complex and advanced Apple Lisa. After being forced to leave the Lisa project, he started working on the famous Macintosh. This surprised me a lot: In 1986, Steve Jobs became the CEO of Pixar Animation Studios. So he’s responsible for bringing us beloved films like Toy Story, A Bugs Life, Finding Nemo and Up. In 2003, Jobs was diagnosed with cancer. Even in his time of suffering, he still produced iPhones, iPods and iPads. Sadly, on October 5th, 2011, he died of Pancreatic Cancer.

There is no doubt that Steve Jobs was an important part of many peoples lives. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have an Apple device of some kind. Personally, my favorite Apple device is the iPod Touch. I’ve had mine for a very long time and I go everywhere with it. I use it for music, to play games, to watch YouTube and Netflix and I have no idea what I would do without it. How about you? Whats your favorite Apple device. Leave your responses in the comment section below. Thanks!

~Adam Kaszas