Materialism: Is it taking over the Holidays?

Materialism in the holidays is a big debate between so many people because it can be very debatable. At the end of Chapter 5 in the “America Now” 2013 issue, two student essays are written. Both of them are about the topic of materialism in the holidays. Amer Saleh thinks that the holiday season is entirely driven by materialism while Lauren Smith thinks it is no way to materialistic and that it is just part of old traditions. Both of these students have good points. In my opinion, I think that the holiday season isn't all about materialism, but it can get materialistic with people trying to buy expensive presents to their loved ones. I both disagree and agree with the two student writers in their viewpoints about the holiday season and materialism. I think that the holiday season is not about materialism but it can be if we make it that way. For example, if we have more money then of course we are going to buy a much more materialistic gift for our loved ones. The more rich we are the more realistic we make our holidays and the poorer we are the less materialistic we make it because we don’t have much to spend on but we make it up by having a good time without gifts and just spending time with family. As Americans we are considered to be more materialistic just because we buy so much, this may be true but it is not true for all of us. Some of us choose to be materialistic and some of us can’t choose or we can’t. We make our holiday season what we want it to be whether we want it to be materialistic or not. It’s ultimately up to us only we can make a choice what we want our holidays to be like. No holiday is entirely materialistic nor without it. Materialism is just something we choose to have if we can and if not then there isn't materialism but there is always family for the holidays.

1st Semester of College

Hello Everyone! My name is Jose Renteria and I attend Oxnard College as a freshman for those of you who don’t know that. It has been half a semester since I have attended college and I have to admit that I really enjoy it. I like the fact that I can pick out my own schedule the way I want it to be. Even though college is great and everything there are things that bug me. One of those things is grades, I keep worrying about my grades because I don’t know what they are just yet. The reason why I’m worried is because I want to have straight A’s and do great in college especially since it’s my first year. A challenge I face in school right now is my Chemistry class because I’m trying so hard to understand it and do great in the class but right now that isn't doing so well for me. The best choice for me right now is to get some tutoring which I am highly considering since I struggled on my second exam the other day. The workload right now is no big struggle, it’s manageable but I do end up sometimes spending some nights up just to finish my homework. The reason why I am going through all of this is because I want to make something out of myself which I think is the ultimate pay-off because in the future I will be enjoying life and have the job that always wanted. The reasons that keep me motivated is my future, my girlfriend, and family. Thanks to these three reasons and people I’m not going to stop from trying my best in school and doing all I can to pass and excel in all of my classes. These same reasons are what keeps me going to study and stay in school because I know if I stop now I will forever regret it. In the future I will look back and think all about the things that made me struggle and what I did to achieve what I wanted. Well, this is basically what has happened on my first semester of college. To those of you who are in the same boat as I am, I wish us all luck so that we can get through the struggles and achieve our goals. Best of luck to us! For those of you who are still here following my story please stick along, I guarantee you that you will not be disappointed. Until next time, this is Jose Renteria signing out.

Reality Television Is No Good

This week I will be talking about a topic that a lot of people nowadays watch or look up to. Reality Television is something that most teenagers watch all the time. Not just teenagers but also adults find reality shows to be entertaining. I personally do not watch reality television but I have friends who do. I dislike the idea of reality shows because people look up to it and sometimes wish it was real for them. I dislike reality shows because it alters the world of a family or person who is trying to live their life. Not only that but we don’t give them space and privacy to live their own lives just like how we live our own and enjoy our privacies. How would you feel if you were in their shoes? Of course we don’t know how they feel because they don’t show their real feelings on this whole reality show thing, but I bet they hate it so much because they don’t have privacy.  I think people are being harmed from watching reality shows because we only see other people’s lives instead of paying attention to and living our own lives. There is no reason why I think that we would benefit from reality shows because everyone’s life is different but it should be respected and kept private for everyone. I avoid reality shows because I strongly believe that privacy should be kept private and I do think that watching reality shows is a “guilty pleasure” for people who watch it because they need to watch in order to have a laugh or just keep up to date with celebrities or whoever is in the reality show. Why so we watch reality shows? This is a question I ask myself many times because I still don’t know the real reason as to why people enjoy and watch reality shows. I’m slowly putting the puzzle pieces together though. I have learned that some people watch reality shows for their entertainment. Some people may be bored and don’t know what to do so they turn the TV on and watch reality shows to make them laugh or get them entertained. Some other people watch reality shows because they just want to see how a celebrity is doing or how the life of somebody else is. This may lead to many exposures of the reality star because then so many people will know what happens in their life and people may make fun of the reality star if something embarrassing has happened to them. With reality shows you never know the outcomes or the reactions of people because some may like it and some may not. Some may even hate the reality star and have anger towards them and start to insult them or start to secretly talk to them and make them feel uncomfortable. Now I ask you again, do you really think reality shows should still air and should we watch it? I highly disagree for our own good because we need to respect privacy and live our own lives the way we want to without being influenced by someone else’s. 

Opinions Matter

Opinions are a way for us human beings to express how we feel about something or someone. The feeling can either be right away or it can take some time for you to have a positive or negative opinion about the certain matter of subject. Something that changed my opinion is the iPhone. My opinion slowly changed to be very negative throughout time. My reasons are because they are very expensive and there is not much that has been changed than the predecessors. Before I thought it was something big because they had some good specs on them but after a few new generations of the iPhone there hasn't been much change in order for me to be excited and care about the iPhone so much. This slowly changed and formed my opinion about the iPhone. After a year or two in seeing the new successors it was basically almost like the predecessor but slightly modified and the price is higher. This is something that disappointed me dramatically because I thought it could be better. This opinion has changed me dramatically because I actually liked the iPhone but after a couple disappointments I turned more towards Android phones. Android phones each year have had something changed drastically. This could of been the OS software or the way it shows as appearance. To some of my friends they do not agree with my opinion because they either have an iPhone or just don't really know what an iPhone should have in order to be powerful and be the perfect smartphone. To me and my family nothing has changed because we are not iPhone users and never have been. We are currently Android users and it is so much better than the newest iPhone out today, again that is just my opinion though. Opiniones can either destroy or make you love the things about something or someone.

Food!

During my childhood my family and I hardly went out and ate fast food. It was not in our nature, we were raised by eating homemade food. My mother almost always never took us to eat fast food because she thought it was not healthy which clearly we all know that today. It says it right away also “fast food”, as you can tell there is no word saying that this is nutritious. During my childhood I relied on the homemade food my mom always made. She would make beans with rice and some veggies on the side most of the time. To her that was a complete nutritious plate of food. For me and my siblings it would be the same old boring food to us. It was boring but it was very nutritious because we would stay fit and we were very strong and healthy growing up. Like I said fast food was not a regular thing for our family but it was a nice treat when we did get some. I remember mostly going to Carl’s Jr, or to a burrito place when we would get fast food. Those were the best appealing to us at the time. I remember getting form Carl’s Jr the star shaped nuggets and getting a nice big hamburger with a small drink. Although I always wanted the meal that came with a toy but the thought of getting fast food was already a pleasure. At the time I felt so amazed and went crazy when it came to fast food because we would have a different taste other than beans and rice all the time.

               Today I am eighteen years old and still the same as how my mother raised me. I don’t rely on fast food at all. I rather make myself some homemade food or eat some of my mom’s food that she makes. I do eat a little more fast food than when I was smaller though. I usually get some when I’m far from home or after school if I get really hungry. Today fast food is ok because to me it’s not something that I have to have. I occasionally eat it and when I do it’s mostly with friends or when I go out with my girlfriend and want something quick to eat. Of course though when it is with her I usually take her to a nice restaurant to eat and enjoy ourselves. Fast food is pretty much everywhere. The name speaks for itself as well, it is made fast. Fast food in my case does not hold me down nor am I dependent on it in order to go on to the next day. It is just there for when I am in need of food and I am not home or close by it. Fast food will continue to be in life unfortunately but it will be tracked by me because I do not want to overdo it with fast food.