A Love For Life

Aine Geraghty

January 5, 2015

 

When my grandfather passed away this past November, a friend took me in their arms and said “Life is a gift.” I thought about that for a while. It didn’t make seeing my grandfather lying in his casket, much like a wax figure, any easier. Nor did it make my breathing less shaky when I couldn't stop sobbing as one of pallbearers. But I did think about it a lot. Then, we were all sat at the awkward lunch that comes after burying a family member, which I guess is for people to come over and say “Boy, you did a beautiful job of bringing your grandfather to his grave. Now I’m going to touch you and talk your ear off, even though that’s the last thing you want right now and you probably don't know me.” I sat with my second cousins, who are more like extended siblings, and I just understood what really loving someone meant. They embodied it in how they lived and how they treated each other and me. And for the first time, in a long running period of days where everything was horrible, I laughed. I smiled and enjoyed living with them in that moment. I had fully grasped what my friend had said to me.

Then came the New Year. Everyone uses it as an excuse to pretend like they are going to be a better person starting January 1st, but instead they just wake up and spend the day tweeting about how drunk they were the night before. I was woken up and told my rabbit was dead. Happy New Year to me. This rabbit had been like a pet dog, like a best friend, like a child to me. And on the first day of 2015, we had dig a hole in the backyard to put her body in. So much for a brighter year than 2014. Everything was gray again. The sky suddenly seemed plastic and I began to wonder if parts of my life had simply been mistaken with dreams. I felt alone, because who would really understand how hard losing my rabbit was? To most people, it’s just a rabbit. It’s not that big of a deal. I decided I would stay in bed for most of the night and the next morning until I had to get dressed for work.

It’s January 2nd, 2015. Noon. I’m throwing off the covers and my mother is yelling through sobs on the telephone. Someone is dead. I just know it. My stomach can sense it and my hands won't work right to open my bedroom door. She slams down the phone and I stand at the top of the stairs, afraid to take that Band-Aid of hope that I could be wrong, and rip it off. But I do it anyway. My cousin, my “extended brother” who was only twenty, had been killed in a tragic accident. Happy New Year to everyone. “Why won’t you stop” is all I could say, and to no one in particular. I thought: how am I supposed to go to work anymore? How am I supposed to go to school ever again? How am I supposed to wake up at all in the morning?

Because I’m alive. I don’t know who or what decides who lives and dies, and I’m not really sure I’m in a place to understand that. But when I wake up every morning, I will get to see things those I have lost cannot. Is it fair? I don’t believe so. But strangely, life is fair because it is unfair to everyone. I don’t mean in every aspect of living, just in the areas we have no control over. It is so very important to realize that life is a gift. I don’t know who the secret Santa was that went over the $10 limit and gave everyone this gift, but I’m thankful anyway. Without appreciation for this gift, there can be no love or happiness in the world. And frankly, that’s the only reason to stay alive. We all live in a strange circle that can’t be understood, but can only be appreciated while we’re still in it. I may be sad for a long time, perhaps even the rest of the year. But that’s okay. It’s perfectly fine to grieve for as long and in any way you’d like, and you should never feel that you have to apologize for that. You can be mad, you can scream and cry, you can even live in a happy denial. The only thing that you can’t do is give up. It sounds so corny, and I’m sure in these times of sorrow no one is looking for a Brady Bunch moment, but you can see the truth in that statement all around you. When you stand on a mountain top and realize how endless existence is, when you hear a baby’s laughter and understand that is where you started, and when you see the sunrise over the tops of you neighbors roofs and silently register the start to a new day. It’s all there. In every moment of living, even the hardest ones, there is a universal theme which is the fact that you are alive. You are alive enough to feel all the things that you do, which is such a mind blowing gift.  It’s so difficult to put into words, but really what you need to remember is something the great Albus Dumbledore once said, which is “Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” Beneath all the pain and sadness any of us feel, we must to hold on to a love for life.

Colonie Central High School Takes on the Hour of Code

By: Jacob Pickett

     On December 11^th and 17^th, one hundred Colonie High School students did not leave the school after the final bell rang. Instead, they entered one of the several computer labs to participate in a fun, and educational experience known, internationally, as the Hour of Code. Each participating student could choose a specific program to learn and practice basic computer code, which would progressively move him or her through different levels of difficulty. According to participate Michelle Luo, the program was "fun, like playing a game." Although each student arrived at different levels of coding experience, they all left more knowledgeable and interested in the quickly growing field of Computer Science.

            Colonie Central High School hosted one of the 77,433 worldwide Hour of Code events on December 11 and December 17, 2014. The original dates of the event were December 10^th and 11^th, 2014, but because of winter weather conditions, the December 10^th event was postponed to December 17^th. However, the South Colonie School District did not contain this program to the high school. In order to provide the young students with an early exposure to the rapidly growing future of Computer Science, several elementary classrooms participated as well.

            According to Colonie High School's executive principal, Christopher Robilotti, the 205 students who registered exceeded the expected number of participates, yet he was disappointed that only 100 showed up, although the rescheduling could have caused the problem. Still, Christopher Robilotti and Michelle Famoso, a Colonie Physics teacher, have contacted each other to begin brainstorming ideas to increase to participation next year. One possible idea is to incorporate the program into the science, technology, engineering, or math classes with the intention of allowing even the students who cannot stay after school with the same opportunity.

            Among the 100 students who actually participated were Colonie High School seniors, Mark Lipina and Michelle Luo. Mark Lipina, who also participated in the 2013 Hour of Code, was able to advance his coding ability to more technical levels. For Michelle Luo, this was her first coding experience, therefore she stated that her program, "Wasn't really coding. It was more like playing a game," but she still found it interesting.

           Computer coding has fascinated Mark Lipina as much to desire that Colonie Central High School offer official coding classes to prepare students for the demands they will find in many technical careers. Michelle Luo is glad she had the exposure to the interesting field of computer coding, but says that because she, "already has a different career to go into," she will most likely not pursue a career in Computer Science.   
 

2014 - The Best?

Kyle Ruth            

December 28th, 2014

 We probably say it every year that "this year was the best year ever." But is there reason to believe that 2014 really was better than others? 2014 was a good year and sure, plenty of terrible things happened. The rise of ISIS in the Middle East, the violence in Ferguson, widening economic inequality, and the killing of schoolchildren in Pakistan. But these things are part of the struggle of being alive and will continue to happen in one form or another for a long time to come. That doesn't mean there is no good to be found. But even if none of this resonates with you, just consider these statistics: while 56 million people died around the world in 2014, 136 million people were born. That means life is winning, that more hope was born this year than died, which is a plus.

                On top of that, divorce has been a widening issue for many families and has increased each year, and in 2014 were at its lowest since 1970.  For a worldly matter, worldwide poverty has decreased heavily, as the United Nations estimated that it has dropped more recently than it has the past 500 years.  Even the poorest regions in Africa grew at a decent rate.  Bottom line on that, the poor are becoming less poor.  Internet connection improved as well, making it easier to connect to other across the world and collaborate, something actually incredible if you take the time to think that you’re talking to someone around the world at just your fingertips.

 For us in the United States, cancer mortality rates have dropped by 20 percent, due to better technology and better equipment in hospitals.  Gas prices have dropped dramatically, whereas when the year started they were three dollars and change, and now in some cities are below two dollars.  Travel has been made cheaper, as airfares have dropped as much as 50 percent and has actually never been safer.

                So for every New Year that we say "that was a great year," 2014 had the stats to back up that statement.  In every country and state around the world, you are less likely to be hungry, more likely to live until you're old, and more connected to the ones you love than you were ten years ago. This change in modern society is only getting better and in 2014 that was evident.  Perhaps this constant change for the better will continue in years to come and make 2014 look bad, but the world has been lucky enough that some of the struggles we’ve had in the past are on their way to diminishing.

Warped Competition

Kyle Ruth

December 16, 2014

                Today, most freshman around the country are just starting to find their way around their new high schools, just starting to figure out who they are, and not thinking about their future in college, let alone making their decision before the year is over.  Choosing a college is really the first major decision in a teenager’s life. Today, colleges across the country that recruit for their sports teams are pushing this decision on kids that are far too young to make a decision like this.

In October of 2014, Wake Forest received a baseball commitment from a 2018 high school graduate from the state of Maine.  A 2018 high school graduate is equivalent to a kid who just started his freshman year in high school this past September.  When I was a freshman in high school, not only was I not mature or big enough to be recruited by colleges, I didn’t even know what to look for in a school.  A freshman in high school can’t even drive a car or see a Rated R movie, so how can a coach pressure him into a decision that could change the rest of his life.  When you make a college decision based on the verbal commitment of a sport such as baseball, you make it based on what the coach can give you athletically and playing time wise.  To be realistic, how can a coach promise a 14 or 15 year old kid, that hasn’t graduated 9^th grade yet, what he can give him.  I feel as if the chance of something changing or him lying is through the roof.  Most kids who are recruited so early are kids that have physically matured very early and have college-ready bodies by the time they’re 15. 

So what does that do to the competition of all the kids across the country with desires of playing at big schools?  I believe it eliminates it for kids who don’t mature as fast, something they can’t control.  When Colonie High school coach Dave Fields was asked his thoughts on this topic, he said, “It is ruining the landscape of college baseball, late bloomers don’t have the chance to go to bigger schools anymore, coaches are putting all their eggs in one basket trying to evaluate kids at such a young age, and soon you will see the effect of it because kids won’t pan out to their potential.  Some kids are way too young to be making those decisions.”  Once a college coach, Fields never dealt with the new way of recruiting kids so young and never saw the point in it.  Even smaller schools are trying to adapt to this new world of making teams. 

On a phone conversation with LIU-Brooklyn Head baseball coach Alex Trezza, the comment he made on recruiting was, “I don’t see the need for it.  Yes, we do look at younger kids now just to keep up and for later down the road, but I don’t think I need to rush it because I can get kids later when they’re ready for a decision and more mature than they were their freshman and sophomore year."

Arguments for this are bigger schools want to lock up their players for longer so they can try to keep them away from the MLB draft better so they will attend school.  However, does time of commitment make a kid more apt to turn down millions of dollars from the MLB to attend school anyway? Every time a college coach recruits a kid that is only a freshman or sophomore in high school, they are doing it to keep up and so no one else can compete.  They merely cross their fingers that the kid turns into what they hope he will be.  It is ruining the game, hurting others chances that can’t control it, and putting pressure on kids to act faster than they have to.

Goodbye to Scott

Ben Hart

January 5th, 2015

    On Sunday January 4th, ESPN lost who many believe to be their most respected anchor. Stuart Scott, who had been with ESPN for twenty years, lost his life to cancer at the age of 49. Scott, at times was the favorite SportsCenter anchor to many players and other athletes. For some, they considered him a close, personal friend. Stuart’s closest friends who were athletes included LeBron James, NFL Hall of Fame inductee Barry Sanders, and Tiger Woods.

    Doctors diagnosed Stuart with cancer firstly in spring 2007, but he continued to be on the air following his diagnosis, with big hopes to beat the disease. Stuart fought almost eight years before he lost the fight. Sunday morning was a very different episode of SportsCenter, a common feeling of sadness was obvious from the anchors, but they paid a tribute to Stuart that brought tears to every anchor as well as some of the athletes involved in the tribute. ESPN explained that Stuart Scott has impacted them in so many ways and he will be truly missed.

    On the 2014 ESPY’s, ESPN’s own award show, the “Jimmy V Award” was presented to Scott due to his courageous battle with cancer. This award pays tribute to Jimmy Valvano, a very famous college basketball coach and broadcaster who had a very similar battle with cancer before he passed away young at 47. Jimmy was mostly famous for his impactful speech at the 1993 ESPY awards, eight weeks before his death. Jimmy’s speech gave hope to all people in a negative situation, and Stuart did the same thing with the speech he gave at the latest ESPY’S.  

Many sports fans who regularly watch ESPN are impacted by this. Even though they did not personally know Stuart, the absence of excitement, positivity, and even the catch phrases that Stuart possessed such as “Booyah!” and “Cool as the other side of the pillow” will surely affect everyone watching SportsCenter, or any NFL or NBA games Stuart would be covering.  Mainly, hearing this news will affect those who have been affected by cancer.

    Colonie’s iCare program focused on cancer last year, and in many ways showed how the fight should always be won. Their efforts raised a lot of money and gave many people hope that anyone close to them affected by this disease could overcome it if they had a chance to, and if not their efforts helped them through as much as possible. The speech given by Stuart Scott at the ESPY’s brought tears to the whole audience, by bringing his daughters on stage and sharing his courageous, hopeful attitude with the audience and viewers inspired many, very similar to the speech given by Jimmy Valvano. Because all of the messages given by iCare’s fundraisers and events to those who attended the events or assemblies, and because of Stuart Scott and Jimmy V’s speeches as well as their hopeful attitudes to this terrible disease, people were given a better attitude toward cancer.

A How-To Guide for Gift-Cards


  Courtney Yule

 

  Ingenuities throughout 2014 within the gift card market has increased revenue and businesses financial portfolios. A National Retail Federations annual Gift Card Spending Survey concluded the average shopper will spend 172.74 dollars on gift cards this year, and teenagers are the highest demographic to request this type of gift. While we love to spend our holiday money at local stores, coffee shops, and music stores, businesses sell gifts cards as an investment. People are unaware of the financial strategy behind this popular gift. Therefore, this guide will help you understand the corporations’ financial tricks and how to avoid them when using a gift card.

    The business plan behind gift cards is simple. Provide the public with a convenient way to purchase their own gifts at their favorite store, but we do not generally understand how this concept impacts businesses in the short and long term.

First, the store revenue increases because “the average gift card user ends up spending an extra 20% beyond the value of the card” (giftcardgranny.com). In addition, 75% of shoppers will overspend their cards value by 60%. This statistic correlates to higher margin sales due to the fact people are inclined to purchase items at full price. The extra holiday cash allows consumers to purchase items they needed, but could not afford on their own. Corporations plan on this capitalist policy to ensure a higher sale margin. Although, we understand stores want our business, do we completely understand their mind frame?

The next part of this article will change your thought process about business organization. Stores play a vital role in our lives. Typically, we do not make our own clothing or grow our on food. Where we choose to shop represents how we manage our basic needs. The ability of stores to attract a certain number of people determines its success. Therefore, advertising, marketing, and incentive strategies helps to draw people into their store. Gift Cards are a major part of these investments. Not only does this card give you a reason to shop at a particular brand. The gift card acts as a catalyst. According to firstdata.com, “The advertising effect of gift cards, whether they are in the possession of a customer or on the shelf in a gift card mall, can help keep your brand top of mind and can possibly lead to additional sales”. Local and corporate stores design the layout based on consumer demand for certain products. The recent demand for gift cards has led to a vital change. Stores are likely to place gift card stands at the register, display case, and near products with a higher sales rate. They build their gift card program though print, radio, and other advertising opportunities. Another technique used is customer incentives (e.g., buy a $25 gift card and receive a $5 gift card free). The structure has been built due to the fact “Holidays account for a large percentage of all gift card sales. Most merchants generate anywhere from 25% to 50% of their gift card sales during the Christmas season”.

Lastly, take advantage of mobile gift cards. According to giftcardgranny.com “61% of surveyed retailers plan to offer mobile gift cards by 2015”. The benefit of using mobile gift cards helps consumers to keep track of balances, avoid losing them, and have them at all times.  These gift cards are easily downloaded unto smart phones and make paying convenient.

Understanding the logic behind gift cards presents us with various benefit. The ability to spend your money wisely and enjoy the savings is a great tool for the future.  Therefore, knowing how the business world markets itself will give you a consumer advantage.

The Result of Victim-Blaming

Brittany Moeske

“I deserved it” and “It’s my fault” are common phrases used by children to describe punishments to friends/family. However, the society goes to far when the words are applied to victims of horrible acts rather than children. Yet this happens all the time, every day in society, and no one notices or cares. Why is that?

Part of the problem is the belief in a “just world,” which is better known as Karma. The saying “Karma is a *****” alludes to this belief that victims have what’s coming to them. Karma means that a person’s past actions dictate their future happenings. In essence, “they have it coming because they are bad.” This is a problem. Don’t believe so? Look at rape victims and how they are treated for the proof.  

In a normal court of law, the defense has to paint their client in an angelic light- “(s)he could never do this because (s)he is a good person, a parent, active in his/her community” etc etc. We’ve all heard the lines. However, during a rape case, the defense simply has to paint the victim in such a way that (s)he is at fault. “Their clothing was provocative… They were flirting with my client… They never said “no,”… Both my client and the victim were drunk…” We’ve heard those lines to. The problem is, these lines work. Juries believe that reasons like this should absolve someone of rape. What is the defense really saying? It’s there, in between the lines. “The victim acted in such a way that (s)he brought it on themselves. They deserved it.”

 Another part of the problem is the guilt. Guilt is a powerful tool, and humans don’t function well with it. Loved ones of murder victims will grapple with survivor’s guilt, and put all the blame on the victim so as to absolve themselves. “(S)He shouldn’t have been in the park alone at night… We were in a fight so it’s not my fault I didn’t answer the phone… (S)He knew better than to go out with that person, (s)he knew they were dangerous…” We’ve heard all these lines too. Now don’t get me wrong, most families don’t blame the victim and handle their guilt differently, but that’s not always the case. And it’s the minority, the “it’s-their-fault-they’re-dead” that’s the problem with society.

There are countless other examples I can give, but these two are the strongest. So how do we fix it? First, we have to recognize it’s happening as a society. Most people are oblivious to it because they’ve been raised in this society and expect it, even if it’s only unconsciously. To fix it, society needs to consciously look at it and go “Hey, there’s something wrong here.” Nothing can be done until then, because this is not a problem that four or five people can fix. Second, we have to change the rules of the game. Defense attorneys want to defend rape by saying it’s the victims fault? Fine, but the prosecution has to come back with “Is (s)he not allowed her choice? Why should his/her clothing make her viable for rape? Are you saying your clothing makes you viable for rape?” Prosecution has to nail them at the vital point, but they won’t be taught to until society says the same thing.

Victim-blaming is a nasty business, and it’s not going to go away on its own. And the sad part is, no one will really know about it until people start reacting to it. So, now that you’ve been introduced to it, sit back and observe. Then spread the message, because it’s not going to stop until you do.