The political blame game

http://politix.topix.com/homepage/4308/results

This link is aggravating. It outlines, unintentionally, a major issue in American politics today: the tendency to blame opposite groups for our issues. This specifically rises when you ask people, as did this question, why America is so divided. This survey, showing a rhetoric that's echoed throughout opinion articles nationwide, shows Americans' tendency to blame "the big guys": Obama, Bush, the Democrats, the Republicans, etc.

It's amazing how, instead of looking for answers and solutions, ways to unite America, people are so willing to just throw the blame on someone: Bush, Obama, liberals, conservatives, the media. It's ridiculous. You can't just blame a group and cross your fingers that suddenly the issue will go away. You've got to look for a solution: blaming liberals and conservatives and Obama for America's polarization isn't going to unite us, just divide us more. We've got to be working, instead, to find solutions, to find ways to unite Americans once again by the things we all most value.

It's fourth grade group project logic: you're behind, the teacher shows up, and you and your partners point fingers at each other. The teacher, most likely, will laugh at you and encourage you to come up with a plan for your solution, because blaming one another, of course, isn't going to solve it. Why can't we be more mature than fourth graders and look for a solution?

Scholastic Art and Writing Awards 2013

Exchange and end-of-the-semester stuff has, thankfully, distracted me from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. In December, I submitted three photos (taken with my old, not-great camera, so I'm not expecting anything) and a handful of writing pieces (poetry collections and short stories). Last year, I won a few awards, so I'm interested to see whether I'll be able to win anything in the high school category this year. I'll find out if I've won anything by the end of the first week of February - it feels like time has flew since I submitted my pieces!

I'm not expecting much, as my short short stories were kind of mediocre. It would be nice to get some sort of recognition for at least one of my poetry collections, though, because I edited them for weeks.

I'm just going to share, now that I'm rereading them, a couple quotes from my Scholastic Art and Writing Awards entries:

"your ideologies are weaponry,
near concealed by the wings of society,but where is your dignity?"    - From the poem "Hypocrisy" 


"they are gods of cold metal machine guns and
semiautomatics in a world where
they will call you prisoners"   - From the poem "Song of Bagpipes" 

"i am
predictable stealthy darkness and
you are young; kingdom come, i
dream the same dream every night." - From the poem "I Dream the Same Dream Every Night"

"your hurricanes would
have been lost to me behind
edges of rational thought poured
into my mind from outside sources
you ignored" - From the poem "To My Martyr Sister From Before"

"I am believer, in your nonexistent God,
 united we are by blood" - From the poem "There Are No Second Chances in My World"

"3. (microscope and a map)
i explore faith
(Brahman, Shiva,
God, Mother Nature, Allah)
with deities stolen
from strangers and
swiftly returned"  - From the poem "Autobiography"

I have a real interview date!

Yesterday, I got a wonderful email telling me that my CBYX interview is in Harrisburg on the 9th. I'm so excited! Plus, I scheduled my Speedwell interview (it's on Super Bowl Sunday)! I'm so excited for both of them!

I've already chosen my CBYX interview outfit, I think: black leggings, a pretty light blue skirt, and a dark blue blouse. I'll probably wear a headband, some unique piece of jewelry, basic earrings, and dark flats. It'll be unique, but not too too formal.

Now, I'm preparing by practicing interview questions. Of course, I don't know exactly what questions I'll be asked, but I have a general idea of the kinds of questions I'll be asked. I'm not trying to prepare for every question I'll be asked - I'm just trying to get a general idea of what sort of answers I'm going to give.

AFS Speedwell and Flying Time

It's kind of amazing that it's already late January - back in early July, when I learned about exchange, I felt as though time was going to pass so slowly until I received my destination. In September, during tennis season, when I was waiting for CBYX and YES applications to come out, I felt as though late winter would never come. But, now, my Speedwell application will be submitted in three weeks, I'm waiting for my CBYX time and date, and time has FLEW, probably thanks to all of the schoolwork I've had to distract me in the past few months.

It's amazing that, in two months, I'll receive either my rejection or acceptance to Speedwell. That seems like a really long time - 60 days, but when I think about how short the time between now and this time last month has felt, it seems like no time at all. This time next year, I'll be about halfway through my exchange year, whether I'm in Germany, Argentina, Portugal, or Slovakia. I'm past the halfway point between when I learned about exchange and when I'll find out which program I'm going with (either one of the scholarships or my ASSE backup).

Now, I'm working on my Speedwell essays and finishing my CBYX full application. These AFS Speedwell essays are a bit longer than the CBYX essays, which is a good thing, because I felt as though the 250 word limit for CBYX was a bit too short for me to be able to adequately address the topics to the extent I wanted to. These essays are really, really important, and I hope to finish them soon.

Tips For the AFS Photo Collage

I spent a portion of the afternoon today completing my AFS photo collage after panicking slightly because I couldn't think of any pictures that had been taken of me, my family and I, or my friends and I in the past three years except for the picture of me hitting a tennis ball that was on the front cover of the sports section of the York Daily Record where I had a rather...unique facial expression. Definitely not the impression I want to give my potential host family.

Tips

• My first instinct, when looking for pictures, was to look through the pictures on my camera. As an amateur photography, my camera was full of shots, but mostly of landscapes. The only shots of people were artistic shots of my sister that weren't particularly useful for the collage. LOOK ON YOUR PHONE and the phones of your family members for pictures. This is where I hit the jackpot - if you're out with your family or friends and say "Hey, cool sign, let's get a picture with it", you're more likely to use your phone than your camera anyways. 
• Keep in mind, when choosing pictures, that pictures on smartphones or that are accessible with smartphones are super easy to send to a PC, and much easier than having to load the SD card onto the computer.
• Keep a balance of subjects in your pictures. I don't know how much merit this actually has, but I've heard that host parents would possibly be wary of someone who has too many pictures of themselves alone, too many pictures of themselves with their families (because you don't want to seem TOO attached), or too many pictures with friends (because you want to look interested in family). I really don't know how much weight photo choice has with potential foreign host families, but I included a good variety of photos anyways: three solo pictures, three with family members, and two with friends. 
• Include a good solo picture of yourself: something a host family can get an idea of what you usually look like from (not just from when you're far away from the camera or laughing your head off at a friend's joke). This might seem like common knowledge to most people, but for those homeschooled/cyberschooled people who don't have school pictures, this is important to remember. 
• Don't include too many pictures with friends. After all, a host family is curious about you and probably a bit curious about your family: honestly, they probably don't care very much about what your friends look like, as they'll likely never speak with most of your friends. However, include at least one picture with friends, just to show that you have them. 
• If you're applying as a freshman or young sophomore, don't include pictures with any friends who look too young. I considered (and actually uploaded before deleting) submitting a picture of me and a few friends who are my age/a year younger, but I rejected the picture because my friends looked really young in the picture, more like middle schoolers than high schoolers (even though most of them were high schoolers at the time). 
• Include a memorable picture of you, something host families can refer to ("I liked the girl with the picture with the snake") and remember. Don't include anything TOO terribly wacky, but include something unique. For example, I included a picture of me from Chinese camp where my face is covered in traditional Chinese opera makeup. 

SEMI!

I'm a CBYX semifinalist! I'm going to receive an email soon with my interview date, time, and location. I got the email this morning, and I'm just so happy they haven't decided to cut me because of my young age (I'm 13 days from the cutoff to be too young for CBYX).

I feel like my age is a weapon that can be used against me at any point in the process: choosing semifinalists, choosing alternates, choosing finalists, ranking alternates. At any step of the way, someone could say, "Oh, this girl is so young," so it's a bit nerve-wracking, as while I have some level of control over my interview, I have no control over how people react to my age. I'm unsure as to whether or not I want to make some sort of statement about my age at my interview (I know some organizations don't like 15-year-old CBYXers because of the extra laws applying to them, such as no drinking, 10PM curfew, but to be honest, I would be annoyed if I were rejected for THAT reason). I've heard AFS isn't as discriminatory against younger exchangers as certain other programs...hoping that's true!

I'm also working on my Speedwell application, for which I am applying to Argentina/Portugal/Slovakia. I've decided that I'm not going to worry about percentages and acceptance rates, just work on rocking my applications and interviews. I'm done worrying about paying for ASSE Portugal as my backup for now - I don't want to revisit that option unless I'm rejected from Speedwell (which I'll find out in late March). I'm just done, because it's SO frustrating attempting to have that conversation with my parents about paying for exchange. I've got a plan, so I'm just trying to put it out of my mind for now.

Anyways, now I'm starting to practice questions to prepare for my CBYX interview. I hope I'll receive my date, time, and location soon!