18...Old Enough for the Bars?

Recently in the news there has been a lot of talk about potentially lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18 years old. Everyone has a unique view as to whether or not the age to legally drink should be lowered, should be raised, or should remain where it is. What do you think?

I believe the drinking age should not be lowered for a variety of reasons. The current drinking age limit may seem arbitrary but if you think about it, it matches well with maturity levels. At 21 you are usually a sophomore or junior in college. At this age, you have grown up a lot. You are beyond the rebellion of being away from home for the first time, living with 50 other people your age, doing things that make you "older", trying to fit in, and relying on your parents for all your money. You have (or we hope you have) become more mature, responsible, and intelligent after experiencing a year or two of college and independent life. At this age you are an adult that can make better decisions. Yes, at 18 you are an "adult" because you can vote, drive, join the army, or sign up for a credit card, but you are also just finishing high school, have lived off your parents all your life and think you know everything about life. Does all of this really qualify you as an adult? I don't think adult comes with an age per say. The title comes along with a certain level of maturity and most people at 18 do not have the maturity level of an "adult". At 18 you are more mature than you were at 16 but that is probably not mature enough to be responsible with alcohol. Could you imagine yourself legally drinking at a bar at the age of 18? How responsible where you then? If you are over 21, how would you feel about 18 year olds hanging out at the bars you visit regularly?

If the drinking age was lowered to 18 obviously younger individuals could be drinking more. Many people argue that if the age were lowered, there would be less underage drinking because there would be less of a temptation since drinking would not be rebellious or illegal. If the drinking age was lowered I believe that underage drinking would still occur but now at an even younger age. Just because the limit is lowered what would keep even younger individuals from testing the boundaries or being tempted? There will be underage drinking no matter what age is set as the limit because people are curious, rebellious, etc. Who wants to see a 16 year old drinking and then getting into a car for the first time?

Other argue that by lowering the drinking age, drinking would just become more normalized throughout all ages of society that less underage drinking would occur. To justify these arguments people cite examples from other countries where drinking ages are lower than the U.S. and it is assumed that less underage drinking occurs. I think that in countries were drinking ages are lower do not necessarily find less underage drinking. I believe the numbers from one country to another are the same. Drinking responsibly is not normalized by allowing more or younger people to drink, but instead by the perceptions people have of alcohol. I think that underage drinking may be more of a problem in countries, like the US, where individuals have more disposable income that can be spent on superfluous things such as alcohol. A poverty stricken town in Liberia will probably face less underage drinking issues than a suburb of Boston because the Liberians are too concerned with having enough resources to feed their population.

Still others argue that if the drinking age was lowered, younger individuals could be introduced to alcohol in a more non threatening environment such as in their own home with parents. How many parents really sit their kids down and talk to them about "the birds and the bees"? Not many, they rely on the education you get through school, friends, and life in general. So why would the situation be any different with alcohol? In this argument to lower the legal age, people are trying to pass off more responsibility to parents from society as a whole and the individual them self. Responsible drinking is a personal decision that is not taught like a driving course or controlled by a parent grounding their child. Would you have listened to your parents at that age? Once again by lowering the drinking and having parents "teach" their kids more responsible drinking, what keeps even younger individuals from underage drinking?

I try see topics from all angles before I make my own opinion because assumptions and judgements are not fair. In this situation I am continuing to understand a variety of opinions but ultimately have not found sound reason to lower the drinking age. If you have one please let me know.

Did You KNOW?

These are some facts I found out while starting at my ESL refugee site…

IF THE WORLD WERE A VILLAGE OF 100 PEOPLE
In the world today, more than 6 billion people live.If this world were shrunk to the size of a village of 100 people, what would it look like?

59 would be Asian
14 would be American (North, Central and South)
14 would be African
12 would be European
1 would be from the South Pacific

50 would be women, 50 would be men

30 would be children, 7 0 would be adults.

70 would be nonwhite, 30 would be white
90 would be heterosexual, 10 would be homosexual

33 would be Christians
21 would be Moslems
15 would be Hindus
6 would be Buddhists
5 would be Animists
6 would believe in other religions
14 would be without any religion or atheist.

15 would speak Chinese, Mandarin
7 English
6 Hindi
6 Spanish
5 Russian
4 Arabic
3 Bengali
3 Portuguese
The other would speak Indonesian, Japanese,German, French, or some other language.
In such a village with so many sorts of folks, it would be very important to learn to understand people different from yourself and to accept others as they are.

Of the 100 people in this village:
20 are underonurished, 1 is dying of starvation, while 15 are overweight.

Of the wealth in this village, 6 people own 59% (all of them from the United States),
74 people own 39%, and 20 people share the remaining 2%.

Of the energy of this village, 20 people consume 80%, and 80 people share the remaining 20%.

20 have no clean, safe water to drink.
56 have access to sanitation
15 adults are illiterate.
1 has an university degree.
7 have computers.

In one year, 1 person in the village will die, but in the same year, 2 babies will be born, so that at the year's end the number of villagers will be 101.

If you do not live in fear of death by bombardment, armed attack, landmines, or of rape or kidnapping by armed groups, then you are more fortunate than 20, who do.

If you can speak and act according to your faith and your conscience without harassment, imprisonment, torture or death, then you are more fortunate than 48, who can not.

If you have money in the bank, money in your wallet and spare change somewhere around the house, then you are among the richest 8.

If you can read this message, that means you are probably lucky!

(The statistics were derived from Donella Meadows "State of the Village Report")

Upset with Myself

Have you ever spent hours working on a puzzle and then found you were missing the last piece to complete it? Have you ever spent days planning a party, trip, or game and then had to cancel it because people bailed on you?

Well this past week I felt these feelings of frustration multiplied by 10. I am a studious individual…ok I am a nerd, so I spent a LOT of time studying for 3 exams that I had during the week. Let’s just put it this way, over the previous week and a half I spent 12+ hours studying for one exam alone. This kind of studying is nothing new to me since I have always been determined and focused to do well and learn as much as I can in school. I just adopted this mentality in high school since I figured being a student was “my job”. Most of my hard work over the years has paid off and have been able to truly believe that the harder you work the better you will do. This hard work thing blew up in my face this past week...here enters the frustration.

I reviewed material, I practiced problems, I rewrote notes, the whole gamut. I thought I understood the material. In fact, in one of my classes at a review session I was explaining concepts to students because the teacher did not know how to explain them. Well I took my exams and… I did not do as well as I would have liked or thought I would do.

There are a number of things I could blame it on, they were the first exams of the semester, first exams by new teachers, I was sick all week, I had little sleep, etc but that would be taking the easy route and I am not like that. I got my tests back and reviewed what I missed and understand why I missed things yet it still bothers me that I did not do very well. I know people that did not put forth as much effort as I did in studying, yet they still did just as well or better. Frustrating?….YES!! I did not do horrible but it just was not what I would expect to receive after all my efforts.
I know that these types of things should not get to me so much considering there are other important things in life. Grades are not the end all be all and will not really matter once I am done with school. When these frustrating events happen, I feel like not trying at all on the rest of my school work, because hey all the work did not pay off so doing no work cannot get any worse results. I begin to doubt that the harder you work the better you do. I know I could never just slide by in school because in the end, I would feel too upset for not giving it my all. After reviewing a test with one of my professors, he mentioned, “You did better than the average and half the class”…..I just thought to myself, “I don’t JUST want to be SLIGHTLY better than the average” and "I could care less about the rest of the class".

The grade is not what bothers me, it is that I feel as if I put forth so much effort towards something and it did not turn out the way I wanted it to. I worked hard at “my job” and it still did not turn out as well as I wished. This frustration is like a tick that keeps on going in my head. It feels like that missing puzzle piece or abandoned party.

Grateful for Every Penny!

This past spring I was awarded one of a few Drake Alumni Association Scholarships based on academics, involvement, and need. I am glad that I filled out an application and did some foot work in order to be considered because it all paid off. Apply for any and every scholarship opportunity you are qualified for. Who wouldn’t want free money?? I was excited and thankful since school is getting to be astronomically expensive, considering the cost of classes, books, living, etc. I wrote thank you notes to each member of the board….NEVER forget the ‘Thank You’ because think about how you feel when you receive a “thank you”!

The award winners including myself were invited to an “Afternoon Tea” this past Tuesday with Drake University’s President and first lady as well as a few board members of the Drake Alumni Association. I got an invitation in the mail about 2 weeks ago and was supposed to RSVP to the number on the invitation. I called the number thinking that it was a secretary’s number in some academic office. When the individual picked up it was the first lady…shocked that the invite had the phone number and address to the president’s home I was somewhat speechless. After moments of silence I finally said something to the first lady but I forgot to tell her who I was until she asked. I felt like a complete fool but at least we both laughed about it. Take advantage of as many opportunities to build connections, friendships and associations with others as you can.

On Tuesday, it was fun because as I mentioned before it was at the president’s home, which of course was in a ritzy neighborhood. The house was spotlessly decorated in antiques and fine furniture as if it were out of a catalog. It was even better because it was an authentic “Tea” with an elaborate silver tea set, cute sandwiches, servers, and formal dress (error on the side of formal everytime). The time was good because it was short but enjoyable. The board members were all adorable and welcoming as they told us we should think of them as our grandparents here in Des Moines. One of the ladies mentioned all the thank you notes....what did I tell you about thank yous! While each person made a little statement about the board and its great support one of the only male board members kept nodding off which was humorous. However, no one made fun of him….probably because he consistently provides some of the biggest donations to the association. On the way out, the first lady warned us that her cat has managed to go home with others because she hides under cars so we should check our car before we left...interesting? To the members of the alumni association....THANK YOU for all of your continued support for Drake Students!

No time to be sick in college!

So as a little kid you wanted to be sick. If you were sick you could stay home from school, watch TV all day and be waited on by your mom. It was the life. No responsibilities and all the sympathy in the world.

In college.....forget being sick. Once your sick it is a vicious cycle that takes so long to break. You are sick but you have to keep up with your work otherwise you will have to catch up later. By keeping up with your work you still feel crappy and do not get more sleep which you need to get better when you are sick. So you stay feeling sick until you can catch a break sometime. There is no time to be sick as a college student, yet college students pass infections as quickly as germy kindergarten kids. The close living situations, the sharing of everything, and the lack of sleep just add up and getting sick in college is as easy as just going to class.

The reason I bring this up is, I think I am getting sick. I woke up yesterday with a sore throat, headache and sore stomach. I have gotten very little sleep in the past few nights because I feel sick which is just making me feel worse. Of course this all comes during some of the busiest/stressful weeks, as I have 5 exams and 3 quizzes in the next two weeks as well as 120 papers to grade and am starting my diversity training at a ESL clinic. I think this is how life just is, constantly testing your resilience and ability to deal with situations. I think we should all just stay elementary aged kids who get to stay home when they are sick and watch cartoons while getting chicken soup served by mom.....how could life get any better?

Do you remember this day?

It is crazy to think that the tragedies of 9/11 happened 7 years ago. This fact makes me realize how fast life flies by and how old I am getting. I was a freshman in high school when all the chaos and hurt occurred and now I am a senior in college. I remember the events of 9/11 so vividly that it feels as if it was only a few months ago. I am not sure why the details of that day were burned into my memory unlike any other memory.

I was sitting in my second period global history class at a table next to my friends names Chris. We had just started class as the teacher was handing back a geography quiz. A different teach stormed through the back door of the classroom and started saying, "turn on the TV, you have to see what is going on". The classroom had a huge projector screen (about 10ft x 12 ft) in the front of the class so the teacher turned on the project and turned it to the NBC station. All we kept seeing was the twin towers billowing with smoke as reports were shouting out confused messages. At the bottom of the screen was minute by minute information scrolling across the screen. The footage kept showing the planes flying into the twin towers. The images became ingrained in my mind since they were played over about 12 times on this HUGE screen in front of my face. I sat there as my stomach dropped to my knees. I could not believe what I was seeing. Not a word was spoken nor did anyone move for the entire 40minute class period. We all just sat and watched. Everyone was in disbelief, upset, confused, aw struck, mortified, etc. As the bell rang we barely moved until my teacher reminded us that we had to go to our next class. Classes were scheduled for the rest of the day but in each class we just sat and starred at the television sets. I was confused all day until I went home to find my parents home early from work. I watched the television now seeing images of the tragedies in Philadelphia and Washington DC over and over again in combination with the twin tower collisions and destruction. I realized that what had happened was not a dream and at that moment I all I wanted to do was deny that I was human. How could a person could do such hurtful things to another human being? I will forever be confused by this question and will probably never find an answer.

One year later I was reminded of the tragedy first hand as I traveled with my marching band to New York City for the Macy's Day parade. We spent a whole day at ground zero as we took part in a memorial service. I remember seeing rubble still spread around, the excavation attempts still going on, the damage to the neighboring buildings, the pain and emotions felt by everyone there and the darkness that overshadowed the area. But the most memorable things I remember are the numbers of people there visiting, the memorials set up, and the hope that overcame the despair in the air.

I think the memories are so detailed because this was a major event for my generation, somewhat like the bombing of Hiroshima or the Vietnam War or many other major events were for previous generations. The memories are not always happy but they remind us of the pain people can cause as we hope for a brighter future in which suffering can be eliminated. I think most people remember the day in such detail and will probably never forget it. These life altering occurrences make you realize just how hurtful people can be and how precious life is.

ALWAYS remember to live life to the fullest because you never know what tomorrow may bring and to tell everyone you love "I Love You" as often as you can because you do not know if it will be the last time. For today remember and pray for all those directly and indirectly affected by the tragedies of 9/11 including the people, families, and for the peace that will stop any of these kinds of hatred filled acts to happen again.

What to do?

Over the past few days I have been worrying about my education, career, and life choices as well as where exactly I should be after graduation. Yes I know it is ridiculous considering I have almost 3 more years until I am done, but I feel that everyone around me is planning their lives. Actually I think about my future a lot since I over analyze most things and have been pushed since high school to know "what I want to be when I grow up". But my thoughts have gotten more intense since all of my friends are seniors and are talking about being done in a semester or so, moving on, getting jobs, getting married, having kids, etc. This is making me feel like I need to know what I will to do with my life, where it is going and what my plans are for the next 10 years or so.
Mentally, I am still in college mode; therefore, do not even have marriage or children on my mind. I know I will get married and have kids sometime but not in the near or intermediate future...at least not until after graduation. As to where I will be living, not positive yet. I know for the next 2 years I will be in Des Moines, for rotations I will be around the Midwest, and after graduation, probably around the Chicago area, since it is so great.

As for my career....this is where I am completely lost and I feel like I am the only one. Everyone always asks me 'What are you going to do with your degrees?" and I never really know what to say. I guess my problem is I feel like I have too many choices with my PharmD degree and am not really sure what my choices are with my joint PharmD/MBA degrees. As I continue through school and work experiences it seems that each time I eliminate one possibility, three more come up. For example, even though retail pharmacists make some of the highest salaries as pharmacists, through work experience I know I do not want to work as a retail pharmacist. Through other intern experiences and my new TA position I now am thinking about three new possibilities...teaching, research, or regulation. I am indecisive to begin with and more options just makes me more confused. I am interested in all of these pathways and want to keep my future open. I feel like every decision I make from now on is going to determine part of my future and I worry that I might make the wrong decision or miss something I should be doing.

THEN....I force myself back to logical thinking. I remember that I have time to make up my mind, the rest of my life to figure out who I am and the opportunity to change my mind a few times. As much as I hate worrying about everything, being indecisive and feeling like I have not plan for the future, I know I have to remember...

"Even if you have too many options, be happy about them. They are always better than limitations" "Being slow to make a decision is not always bad, as long as you eventual make a decision" "Live life now because worrying about the future will not guarantee it!"

How To Fit In at College

As humans we have this need to fit into any environment we are in because no one wants to be an outcast. When we visit another city, country, etc we try to dress and act like everyone else in the area. "When in Rome do as the Romans". I do not think people will point and mock visitors considering everyone is a visitor at some time in their life, plus people are too worried about their own lives to care. So why do we try so hard?

We all want to feel accepted, liked, and 'normal'. For everyone it starts out sometime in the elementary years when it becomes apparent that people are different. Up to that point in life, it did not matter if your shirt tag said Abercrombie or OshKosh, if the people you played with where apart of the ‘cool crowd’, or if you were a girl in a size 2 or a size 16. At that pivotal age kids begin to realize that differences exist between them and others. Certain things and people become ‘normal’, ‘cool’, ‘dorky’, ‘losers’, etc. In junior high what you wear and who you hang out with becomes the most important thing in life. You would rather be dead than caught wearing Wal-Mart clothes while hanging out with the nerds. In high school what your reputation, looks, and hobbies become important. You have to spend an hour getting ready for school where you deny you’re in the band and pretend as though you have drank before. Throughout these years people try so hard to fit in and be accepted that they put themselves to the side and ignore their true passions.

In college it all changes, if you want it to. Most students become adults and realize what is truly important to them and begin to live for themselves. It becomes too difficult trying to find out who you are and where you want life to go that fitting in becomes an old past time. Trying out things that interest you even though your best friend does not do it allows you to meet more people and fit without any effort. Do not worry if you cannot let go, some people continue to live for others, try to fit in, compare who they slept with or how much they drank.

The best way to fit in at college is to not try to fit in but just be yourself. Naturally you find your place and your friends and fitting in isn’t necessary. People will accept you for who you are while you live for what’s important to you.

“When in college, do as you normally would to be happy not as other tell you”