Chiquita on the Ethics of Belief

**This was written last week, but for some reason never got posted, so ignore the today’s and last night’s, they’re more like last Wednesday and the night before**

Today in my philosophy class only six of the 23 people did the reading that was assigned last night. I just happened to be one of them. Our teacher really hates it when we don’t do the reading. Actually, I think it really makes him genuinely sad. So when he asked who did the reading and only six of us raised our hands, he declared us his favorites and said we will now get special treatment. Then he asked us to gather our things and come with him. He led us to the social studies office and had us take a seat. He gave us coffee, and told us we are officially a study group. Then he left. Our discussion started out with us reading through W.K. Clifford’s “The Ethics of Belief”, and analyzing each paragraph. Clifford was arguing about the existence of god, sort of. He was arguing about how you should argue. Anyways, we’d been dealing with the argument of the existence of God, and how we should approach it. Well, we ended up getting into the argument itself, and it turned out to be one of the best class periods ever. Carol* is a Christian, and she was saying that unless you believe in God, The God all Christians believe in, and you ask for forgiveness for your sins and are saved, then you go to heaven. If not, you go to hell. It’s as simple as that. Dexter* argued that Gandhi wasn’t a Christian, but he really was a genuinely good person and he did so much for the world, is he going to hell? She said I hate to break it to you, but yes. Another kid, Bill*, argued that there absolutely was no God and believed die hard in the Big Bang Theory. Most of the time, the argument was pretty respectful. I sort of struggle with this argument myself, and it made me question my beliefs all the more. Personally, I believe that if you believe in Your God, no matter what religion you are, and whether or not you have been saved, then you go to heaven. I believe murderers and rapists and people of the like don’t get to go to heaven. I don’t think people that believe in many God’s get to go to heaven. I believe if you believe in an all-powerful, all knowing, all good, divine being, and you live your life to please him, or at least try to, then you go to heaven. I used to believe what Carol believed, but after this discussion, I’m not so sure about all that. The post discussion I have is that if there is a God, how could he just be like that? “If you don’t believe in me, and only me, and beg me for forgiveness for your wrongs, then you may rot in hell”. I just don’t see that as being very realistic. Carol said she struggles with that too, but that that’s just how it is. She doesn’t like it, but religion doesn’t have to be all about what you want. Sometimes its exactly how you don’t want it, and you just have to deal with it. I just think that’s all wrong. I guess I haven’t really come to a conclusion on this one either. I’ll get back to you.
*Names have been changed, of course.

Chiquita on Battle of the Sexes

These days I would say it’s pretty even as far as how much women are valued in society compared to men. Our principal is a woman, a lot of our public officials are women, and Oprah is a pretty influential woman in today’s society. It’s taken a lot of time – centuries really- for women to get where we are today. Women weren’t even allowed to vote in the United States until 1920. That was only 89 years ago, and Women’s suffrage did not become international law until 1948. That was only 61 years ago! That being said, I’d like to discuss a situation that arose last weekend, what was said, and my reaction to it. There’s this group of guys I know, they’re really into pickup games of football. They play in several different areas, mostly in schoolyards or at parks. Anyways, I’m not much of a tomboy, but I was hanging out with a few of the guys when game time came around. Rather than have them drop me off at home, I decided to tag along. When we got there, it just happened to be my luck that one of the guys bailed at the last minute and they needed one more “guy” to make two teams. One of the players says to me, “You know anybody you could call that’d be down to play, right now?” I said no, but I’d like to play. Another of the players then informed me that, “This is tackle football, honey, we don’t play with girls”. This is when I got a little angry. None of these guys are all that big, they’re mostly soccer player types, shorter guys. I said coolly, “I’m not afraid of being tackled, first of all, and second, I really don’t think you could catch me anyways”. Well, they let me play. I don’t mean to brag, but I did a pretty amazing job. I played the position where you run way out and catch the ball (wide receiver?) I scored four touchdowns. I only let them catch me once, and I got right back up after the tackle like it was nothing even though it hurt like hell. Afterwards we all went to Buffalo Wild Wings. The whole time we were there, all they could talk about was what a “beast” I am, and they kept saying how I really played like “one of the guys”. The more they made me out to look like a guy, the more I wanted to tell them they had it totally wrong. It was like the personification of an inanimate object. I really don’t understand it. I’m not one of the guys. I’m just a girl who happens to be good at a “man’s game”. I just think its kind of stupid that in order for them to think that I have any skill, I have to be “one of the guys”. I don’t understand why football is a man’s sport, or why any sport has to be a man’s sport or a woman’s sport. These guys aren’t much for intellectual conversations and I was outnumbered 20-some to one, so I didn’t bother bringing it up in the conversation. I haven’t really reached a conclusion on this topic just yet, so perhaps I’ll come back to it after further investigation or whatever.

Chiquita on Homecoming

Just a short one tonight kids. I think homecoming is way too over rated. Girls go out and buy expensive dresses, and then sweat it out hoping someone will ask them. They spend countless hours and a bunch of money on hair and makeup, they go to dinner, get pictures done, and then drown in their own sweat in the school cafeteria. I used to be really into the whole thing. I don’t know what it is. Maybe its because most of my friends are older, or that my boyfriend is in college and doesn’t dig the whole high school homecoming thing. Or maybe it’s because now I pay for all of my own stuff, and that would include hair and makeup, dress and accessories for homecoming. Anyways, I decided not to go to the dance. Instead, my boyfriend and I went out to dinner. We went with another couple, they guy is good friends’ with my boyfriend, and his girlfriend is in my grade and goes to my school. We had a really good time. Afterwards we went and saw a movie, and then went over to their house and they had a little after party and some kids came that actually did go to the dance. All in all, it was a pretty good homecoming.

Chiquita on Totally Pointless but Still VERY funny websites

I’m embarrassed. I kept telling myself I would absolutely not blog about this. I keep wanting to, but I keep telling myself no. So screw it.

Three websites. 1. fmylife.com 2. textsfromlastnight. 3. mylifeisaverage.com. BEST WEBSITES EVER. I should have been doing my homework last night, but instead I read posts on MLIA (that’s right, its legit enough to have an acronym) for three hours. In the back of my mind, I’m thinking about how lame I am. I just don’t care though. The stuff that people post on there is just so funny sometimes I laugh out loud until my mom says, “What are you reading? You should be doing homework!” So I read it out loud, and she laughs too. I’ve decided that these websites were made for people like me, who have a very weak (strong?) sense of humor, and laugh at things that normal people don’t find funny. I’m going to give a few examples from each site on here, because I feel like everyone needs to know how funny these sites are.

Example 1 from www.fmylife.com
Today, my parents yelled at me for 10 minutes without letting me get a word in edgewise for getting a 48 on my test. They took my phone, unplugged my internet, and took my car keys. They wouldn't listen no matter how many times I told them "It was out of 50". It actually was. FML

Example 2 from www.textsfromlastnight.com
“(609) Considering the fact that your still in jail Im gunna go with no.”
Example 3 from www.mylifeisaverage.com
“Today, I decided to tan on the balcony. I took my top off and my neighbor came out and saw me. He's a guy. So am I. We greeted each other. MyLifeIsAverage.”
Today, I was having a pretty crappy day. So I came home and got on the internet and started reading MLIA, that’s my favorite one. It made my day so much better. Its nice to know that other people find the littlest or dumbest things funny.

Chiquita on Taylor and Kanye

Ok, with all the hype about Kanye and Taylor, I might as well jump on the bandwagon and give everyone my two cents. First of all, I have a lot of respect for Taylor, and I admire her a lot. I follow her on twitter, myspace, and facebook. Every time she posts something, it reminds me of something I would post. I love that she’s not all glamorous, like she thinks she’s this big diva rock star girl. I love that she is so down to earth. I’m not in love with her music, although some of her songs are pretty good. With the way everyone thinks they are so cool and the biggest celeb in the world today, I love that Taylor is all “Hey, I’m just a country girl with a dream come true, I just want to sing.” That being said, even before all this Kanye vs. Taylor (vs. Obama, haha) I thought Kanye West was a jerk. I seem to remember a few times when he has shown up in the media for doing something cocky or arrogant. Really, he’s just an attention whore. It’s kind of sad that he has to act like an adolescent in order to get in the spot light. I know this is hypocritical considering I’m only fueling the fire by confessing it on a whim, but I wish everyone would just ignore it, because this is exactly what Mr. West wanted when he invited himself up on stage to interrupt Taylor’s moment. Is there anyone out there that respects Kanye as a person? I don’t think so. What’s to respect? He just made Taylor look good and himself look like a jackass with what he did. I think Taylor was really mature about the whole thing. I like the music of both artists, but I’m not going out to buy a Kanye album any time soon, or ever for that matter. The sooner this guy fades out of popularity, the better. He acts like Diddy, and he hasn’t earned the right to. That’s just my opinion on the whole thing.
http://www.youtube.com/user/taylorswift?blend=2&ob=1#play/all/uploads-all/1/x2hRdQnbzKQ

Chiquita on Stopping to Smell the Roses

This week started pretty late for me, so Wednesday was a really busy day. I’d say Wednesday is pretty early in the week, but I slipped so easily back into the motions, I barely noticed as the weekend became a distant memory. I spent the day rushing around, getting makeup work from when I was sick Monday and Tuesday, doing labs, worksheets, and taking tests. Along with doing all these things, I let a call from my sister in law go to voicemail. Shortly after, I found five seconds to listen to it. “We haven’t seen you in a few days. Your nephew has something to say…” and then the voice of my adorable nephew, Aiden, cut in, “Micky! Where are you? Come to my house! I love you!” and click, that’s all. So yesterday evening, when I had a million things to do, I instead headed next door to my nephew’s house. He saw me coming, and popped in the window, waving and shouting, “Micky is here! Hooray hooray!” I came in the house only to be pushed back out the door. Aiden was pulling me towards the garage where we keep his wagon. He was chanting, “To the park! To the park!” And so Aiden and Aunt Mickey were off to the park. When we got there, we went down the slides, played with the woodchips, and then we went for a walk to the garden. He ran ahead of me, jumping around and picking up rocks along the path. Finally I caught up with him, finding him in a squatting position, tiny hands on tiny knees, his face in a flower bush. With no regards to park regulations and things of the like, he grabbed a handful of flowers and pulled them from where they were rooted in the ground. “Micky?” he said, “Come here. Smell. Come smell the roses!” and I did. As I smelled, I had to suppress a giggle. Granted they were not actually roses, Aiden had a pretty good point. I’d been annoyed all day at how much stuff I had to get done and I really didn’t have time to go to the park. With the mood I was in, he was totally right. I just needed to stop and smell the roses.

Chiquita on illness

Every year, I get sick. Like, seriously sick. It sucks so badly. Late fall term, or early winter term, I get behind on my work because I miss so much school. Yesterday, I started feeling a cold coming on. You know, stuffy nose, itchy throat, the usual. I should have just stayed home, but being the commonsense-lacking teenager that I am, I decided to go out with my friends. That was a definite fail plan, because now I am sitting here, kleenex’s piling up, the tussin dm bottle getting more and more empty. This sucks. So, as a result of my going out last night and waking up this morning convinced I was near death, I’ve made a resolution. I hereby promise to take care of my health, and myself starting now. My plan consists of lots of orange juice, vitamin c pills, and not a lot of going out. I am convinced that going out last night contributed considerably to the way I feel this morning. This being my senior year and all, I think I should probably buckle down and focus on keeping myself healthy, and concentrating on my schoolwork. This is probably going to be a pretty hard promise to stick to, but I’m going to have to work on it if I want to come out on the other side of this school year with something I can be proud of. So, here goes nothing.

Chiquita on a non-fight

**I’m leaving names out of this one, because that’s not the point of my story**
It was bright and early this morning, around fifteen minutes to eight, and I’m walking to the cafeteria with Rach. Once we’re there, I see that a bunch of people are outside and that’s when I realized today was the free pancake breakfast. We go though the lunch line to buy a couple bottles of water and then head outside for some pancakes and sausage. We’re just standing in line, yawning in the morning light and talking about Halloween costumes. All of a sudden, two guys are right at my feet. One is yelling and pushing the other, and the guy who is getting pushed keeps saying “hey sorry man I was only joking.” But the other kid is having none of it, and he punches him in the face. For the next two seconds I’m thinking, “Oh no, they’re going to fight.” The kid who just got punched is on the football team, and I don’t know him very well, but I’ve seen him around and he’s a pretty nice guy, and a pretty good ball player. And I’m thinking, “Great, they’re going to fight and this nice kid is going to be suspended and kicked off the football team.” It all just seemed really wrong place, wrong time. Fortunately though, I was wrong. The kid just said, “Hey man, I said I was sorry, are we cool?” But apparently they were not cool, because the kid hit him again, and then AGAIN, and the kid fell down. No, he didn’t freak out and get up swinging. He just stood up, and continued to apologize. At this point, some teachers came to settle things down. Both guys were led away, and the one who refused to throw a punch did eventually come back for his pancakes, and the day went on as it normally does. I guess it was just nice to see someone have enough respect for himself to realize that throwing a punch is never a solution to a problem. What could have been a really terrible day for him went on to just be another game day, because he chose to do the right thing. I appreciate the example that that kid set today.

Chiquita on Goodbyes

Funny that my first entry is a goodbye? Yea, I think so too. But anyways...
Originally, this entry was written out on notebook paper on September 7th, 2009 at 3:42am. I had just gotten back from a good friend's house. His name is Haben. Before he came to Cedar Rapids to go to school, he lived in England but he's originally from Ethiopia. Most of the friends that frequent Haben's house are the same sort of people. Foreign kids going to college in America. There is Ibraham, Haben's roommate. A quiet, respectful young man. There is Mandela, a crazy fun goofball. There's Shedrak, who thinks he's a G, wearing a flat bill baseball hat and "kicks" all the time, he's a cool cat. Then we have Suhaib and Muris, two guys from around here. Muris went to Kennedy, and Suhaib went to Wash. They're pretty cool guys. Then Jenny, from Sweden. She's gorgeous, and her personality makes her absolutely beautiful. Next is Adam and Ashley, an adorable brother-sister duo. Finally, there is Youmna, Adam and Ashley's cousin from Senegal, Africa.
Youmna, 15, visited for the summer. When she first arrived, she barely spoke English. Her native language was French, and since Adam was the only one of us who was fluent, he did all the translating for the first week or so. Youmna caught on quickly though, and before long she was cracking sarcastic jokes at us, in English! She was adorable, and we all accepted her right away. The whole summer was our group, hanging out at Haben and Ibraham's and going to the beach. We were family, and that apartment at Kirkwood was our home. I've never met a more accepting group of people. If you were friends with one of us, you were friends with us all. I truly believe this summer was the most memorable of all my summers, and i owe it all to that amazing group of people.
That night, our last night really together with Youmna, we got her over there, just for one last time. When everyone was finally there, and the cake was all decorated, we sat Youmna down on the couch. Inevitably, the slow clap began. Then out came the cake, with everyone cheering. We set it down on the table in front of her, and her eyes filled with tears. She hid her face in her hands, and in the small living room packed with all her friends, she cried. The tears rolled down her cheeks, and you could see in her eyes that it was a sad cry, because she was leaving, but still a happy cry because she knows how much we love her and will miss her. Then out came the card, filled with many I love you's, and all the funny things she said, along with promised trips to Africa, one of which was from me of course. And as she cried, i had to bite my lip and turn away, fighting the tears welling up in my own eyes.
For a few more hours, we did the usual. We played music and sang along, took pictures, and laughed until our stomachs hurt. We had some cake and made our last memories of this unforgettable summer. All too soon, it came time to go. There were hugs all around, and i hid in the corner, making sure I was last. Finally, she came to me. I choked on my "I'm going to miss you" as the tears began to fall. I held my friend for what may be the very last time, although i hope not, and together we cried.
I remember laying on the beach. I asked Youmna, "When do you have to go back?" and she said, "In September." I remember thinking, "oh, that's a million years away." And now look, its today. I said the whole time at the going away party, "I'm coming to Africa. No really, I am. I'm coming to visit you, I'm serious." Maybe some day I will. I sure hope so, because I'd like to think of this as a "see you later", because no one likes goodbyes.